About the Author

Mukoma Wa Ngugi is an assistant professor of English at Cornell University and the author of Nairobi Heat, Black Star Nairobi, and Hurling Words at Consciousness. In 2014, Buchkultur named the German translation of Nairobi Heat the Crime Book of the Season. In 2009, Mukoma was short-listed for the Caine Prize for African Writing and in 2010 for the Penguin Prize for African Writing for his manuscript The First and Second Books of Transition, which became Mrs. Shaw.

Reviews

"What emerges in Mrs. Shaw is the cyclical nature of a postcolonial nation-state returning, over and over again, to its violent origins. Yet Mukoma is just as critical toward revolutionary movements that they themselves cannot escape the pathologies of violence.... Mrs. Shaw is a treatise on traumas, individual and collective, but it is also a document on working through these physical and psychological wounds through the technologies of writing."
"Mukoma Wa Ngugi is a deft, poised storyteller who has mastered the art of sweeping up the reader. From the first page of Mrs. Shaw I found myself hooked, in awe, riveted. Here's a sad, gripping and highly entertaining romp of a novel." -- Okey Ndibe, author of Foreign Gods, Inc. and Arrows of Rain
"Mrs. Shaw is a searing account which subverts the notion of universal truths. It is also a novel that poignantly narrates the story of exile, love, the struggle for freedom and multiple perceptions of history....Through his artistic and fictional representation of war, exile and love, Mukoma wa Ngugi has produced an eloquent critique on the complexity of life and relationships and the impact of political exile."
"Mukoma Wa Ngugi's latest publication, Mrs. Shaw, is a work of astonishing imagination, blending the real with the surreal to explore the plight of a political activist, Kalumba, who is returning to his fictional homeland, Kwatee, following years of exile in America. The book grips the reader's attention from start to finish, using twists, turns, and surprises in a plot laced with intrigue, suspense, tension, and passion." -- M cere G thae Mugo, author of Writing and Speaking from the Heart of My Mind and My Mother's Poem and Other Songs