Bookatlas
1977Postcolonial Literatures
Cover of Petals of Blood

Petals of Blood

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o · b. 1938 · Kenya

Why it matters

A murder investigation opens onto the betrayals of postcolonial Kenya: the new elite feeding where the colonizers left off. It helped land Ngũgĩ in detention without trial; the radical African novel at full voltage.

At a glance

political novelcolonial & postcolonialcrime & noir
Difficulty 6/10medium pace405 pages

Sprawling structure interleaving four life histories with a present-day murder plot.

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