The Perfect Nine

Author: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Publisher: The New Press
ISBN: 1620975262
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Book Description
A dazzling, genre-defying novel in verse from the author Delia Owens says “tackles the absurdities, injustices, and corruption of a continent” Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s novels and memoirs have received glowing praise from the likes of President Barack Obama, the New Yorker, the New York Times Book Review, The Guardian, and NPR; he has been a finalist for the Man International Booker Prize and is annually tipped to win the Nobel Prize for Literature; and his books have sold tens of thousands of copies around the world. In his first attempt at the epic form, Ngũgĩ tells the story of the founding of the Gĩkũyũ people of Kenya, from a strongly feminist perspective. A verse narrative, blending folklore, mythology, adventure, and allegory, The Perfect Nine chronicles the efforts the Gĩkũyũ founders make to find partners for their ten beautiful daughters—called “The Perfect Nine” —and the challenges they set for the 99 suitors who seek their hands in marriage. The epic has all the elements of adventure, with suspense, danger, humor, and sacrifice. Ngũgĩ’s epic is a quest for the beautiful as an ideal of living, as the motive force behind migrations of African peoples. He notes, “The epic came to me one night as a revelation of ideals of quest, courage, perseverance, unity, family; and the sense of the divine, in human struggles with nature and nurture.”

The Perfect Nine

Author: Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1473548934
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 147

Book Description
*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE.* 'One of the greatest writers of our time' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The Perfect Nine is a glorious epic about the founding of Kenya's Gikuyu people and the ideals of beauty, courage and unity. Gikuyu and Mumbi settled on the peaceful and bounteous foot of Mount Kenya after fleeing war and hunger. When ninety-nine suitors arrive on their land, seeking to marry their famously beautiful daughters, called The Perfect Nine, the parents ask their daughters to choose for themselves, but to choose wisely. First the young women must embark on a treacherous quest with the suitors, to find a magical cure for their youngest sister, Warigia, who cannot walk. As they journey up the mountain, the number of suitors diminishes and the sisters put their sharp minds and bold hearts to the test, conquering fear, doubt, hunger and many menacing ogres, as they attempt to return home. But it is perhaps Warigia's unexpected adventure that will be most challenging of all. Blending folklore, mythology and allegory, Ngugi wa Thiong'o chronicles the adventures of Gikuyu and Mumbi, and how their brave daughters became the matriarchs of the Gikuyu clans, in stunning verse, with all the epic elements of danger, humour and suspense. 'A tremendous writer... it's hard to doubt the power of the written word when you hear the story of Ngugi wa Thiong'o' Guardian

Nine Perfect Strangers

Author: Liane Moriarty
Publisher: Macmillan Publishers Aus.
ISBN: 1760780987
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 494

Book Description
From the no. 1 New York Times bestselling author of The Husband's Secret, and Big Little Lies with new novel Apples Never Fall out now. NOW A MAJOR TV MINISERIES ON AMAZON PRIME The retreat at health and wellness resort Tranquillum House promises total transformation. Nine stressed city dwellers are keen to drop their literal and mental baggage, and absorb the meditative ambience while enjoying their hot stone massages. Watching over them is the resort's director, a woman on a mission to reinvigorate their tired bodies and minds. These nine perfect strangers have no idea what is about to hit them. With her wit, compassion and uncanny understanding of human behaviour, Liane Moriarty explores the depth of connection that can be formed when people are thrown together in... unconventional circumstances. LONGLISTED FOR THE ABIA GENERAL FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019 LONGLISTED FOR THE INDIE BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2019 PRAISE FOR NINE PERFECT STRANGERS "She is...both hugely popular yet subversive...Nine Perfect Strangers shows Moriarty still taking risks with fiction...weighty issues writ with humour and a light touch. The hammer is still in the handbag, ready to smash a glass window or two." Lucy Sussex, The Australian "Welcome to Tranquillum House where those Perfect Strangers ... have come to sort out their lives ...This gives Moriarty the opportunity to do what she does best, write about the human condition and connections that bind us all, with wicked humour, empathy and compassion - and a little bit of danger thrown in." Frances Whiting, Courier Mail PRAISE FOR LIANE MORIARTY "One of the few writers I'll drop anything for. Her books are wise, honest, beautifully observed..." Jojo Moyes "Moriarty is a deft storyteller who creates believable, relatable characters." Washington Post "Moriarty is brilliant at her craft, all the time cranking up the suspense." The Age "funny and scary" Stephen King "Sharply intelligent" Entertainment Weekly "Mistress of the razor-sharp observation" Kate Morton

Birth of a Dream Weaver

Author: Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Publisher: New Press, The
ISBN: 1620972670
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 188

Book Description
One of Oprah.com's "17 Must-Read Books for the New Year" and O Magazine's "10 Titles to Pick up Now." “Exquisite in its honesty and truth and resilience, and a necessary chronicle from one of the greatest writers of our time. ” —Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Guardian, Best Books of 2016. “Every page ripples with a contagious faith in education and in the power of literature to shape the imagination and scour the conscience.” —The Washington Post From one of the world's greatest writers, the story of how the author found his voice as a novelist at Makerere University in Uganda Birth of a Dream Weaver charts the very beginnings of a writer's creative output. In this wonderful memoir, Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o recounts the four years he spent at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda—threshold years during which he found his voice as a journalist, short story writer, playwright, and novelist just as colonial empires were crumbling and new nations were being born—under the shadow of the rivalries, intrigues, and assassinations of the Cold War. Haunted by the memories of the carnage and mass incarceration carried out by the British colonial-settler state in his native Kenya but inspired by the titanic struggle against it, Ngũgĩ, then known as James Ngugi, begins to weave stories from the fibers of memory, history, and a shockingly vibrant and turbulent present. What unfolds in this moving and thought-provoking memoir is simultaneously the birth of one of the most important living writers—lauded for his "epic imagination" (Los Angeles Times)—the death of one of the most violent episodes in global history, and the emergence of new histories and nations with uncertain futures.

Perfect Lies

Author: Jennifer Crow
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
ISBN: 1414374496
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Book Description
Are your innermost thoughts robbing you of health and happiness? Jennifer Crow knows what that’s like. She always tried to do everything right—so she was shocked when her seemingly perfect life began to fall apart. Diagnosed with a dozen chronic health issues, she entered a deep depression and spiritual crisis. And as everything unraveled, Jennifer began to see how the perfect lies she’d told herself—lies like “I must prove myself because my worth depends on what I do” and “I must gain the acceptance of others because their opinion matters most”—were literally crippling her body, mind, and soul. In Perfect Lies, Jennifer reveals nine key lies that held her back, walks us through her journey of miraculous recovery, and shares practical techniques for overcoming these same lies in our own lives and finding true freedom instead.

Wrestling with the Devil

Author: Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Publisher: The New Press
ISBN: 1620973340
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 166

Book Description
A New York Times Editors’ Choice "A welcome addition to the vast literature produced by jailed writers across the centuries . . . [a] thrilling testament to the human spirit." —Ariel Dorfman, The New York Times Book Review "Wrestling with the Devil is a powerful testament to the courage of Ngũgĩ and his fellow prisoners and validation of the hope that an independent Kenya would eventually emerge." —Minneapolis Star Tribune "The Ngũgĩ of Wrestling with the Devil called not just for adding a bit of color to the canon’s sagging shelf, but for abolition and upheaval." —Bookforum An unforgettable chronicle of the year the brilliant novelist and memoirist, long favored for the Nobel Prize, was thrown in a Kenyan jail without charge Wrestling with the Devil, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's powerful prison memoir, begins literally half an hour before his release on December 12, 1978. In one extended flashback he recalls the night, a year earlier, when armed police pulled him from his home and jailed him in Kenya's Kamĩtĩ Maximum Security Prison, one of the largest in Africa. There, he lives in a prison block with eighteen other political prisoners, quarantined from the general prison population. In a conscious effort to fight back the humiliation and the intended degradation of the spirit, Ngũgĩ—the world-renowned author of Weep Not, Child; Petals of Blood; and Wizard of the Crow—decides to write a novel on toilet paper, the only paper to which he has access, a book that will become his classic, Devil on the Cross. Written in the early 1980s and never before published in America, Wrestling with the Devil is Ngũgĩ's account of the drama and the challenges of writing the novel under twenty-four-hour surveillance. He captures not only the excruciating pain that comes from being cut off from his wife and children, but also the spirit of defiance that defines hope. Ultimately, Wrestling with the Devil is a testimony to the power of imagination to help humans break free of confinement, which is truly the story of all art.

Nine Stories

Author: J. D. Salinger
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316459984
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 157

Book Description
The "original, first-rate, serious, and beautiful" short fiction (New York Times Book Review) that introduced J. D. Salinger to American readers in the years after World War II, including "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and the first appearance of Salinger's fictional Glass family. Nine exceptional stories from one of the great literary voices of the twentieth century. Witty, urbane, and frequently affecting, Nine Stories sits alongside Salinger's very best work--a treasure that will passed down for many generations to come. The stories: A Perfect Day for Bananafish Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut Just Before the War with the Eskimos The Laughing Man Down at the Dinghy For Esmé--with Love and Squalor Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period Teddy

The Perfect Neighbor (A Jessie Hunt Psychological Suspense Thriller—Book Nine)

Author: Blake Pierce
Publisher: Blake Pierce
ISBN: 1094371378
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Book Description
“A masterpiece of thriller and mystery. Blake Pierce did a magnificent job developing characters with a psychological side so well described that we feel inside their minds, follow their fears and cheer for their success. Full of twists, this book will keep you awake until the turn of the last page.” --Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone) THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR is book #9 in a new psychological suspense series by bestselling author Blake Pierce, which begins with The Perfect Wife, a #1 bestseller (and free download) with nearly 500 five-star reviews. In an exclusive and wealthy neighborhood in Manhattan Beach, a new neighbor moves into a luxury home—only to be found dead soon thereafter. The case brings Jessie into another wealthy beach town, evoking bad memories of her marriage and forcing her to confront her own demons—while trying to unmask the lies of this seemingly perfect town. Was the murder connected to an exclusive party for the elite? Or is there an even more nefarious motive at stake? Making matters worse, Jessie’s husband is now out of prison—and a potential threat to her once more. A fast-paced psychological suspense thriller with unforgettable characters and heart-pounding suspense, THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR is book #9 in a riveting new series that will leave you turning pages late into the night. Books #10-#24 are also available!

The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano

Author: Donna Freitas
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1984880608
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Book Description
A deeply moving novel about a woman who thought she never wanted to be a mother—and the many ways that life can surprise us “An ode to possibility” — The Washington Post Rose Napolitano is fighting with her husband, Luke, about prenatal vitamins. She promised she'd take them, but didn't. He promised before they got married that he'd never want children, but now he's changed his mind. Their marriage has come to rest on this one question: Can Rose find it in herself to become a mother? Rose is a successful professor and academic. She's never wanted to have a child. The fight ends, and with it their marriage. But then, Rose has a fight with Luke about the vitamins--again. This time the fight goes slightly differently, and so does Rose's future as she grapples with whether she can indeed give up the one thing she thought she knew about herself. Can she reimagine her life in a completely new way? That reimagining plays out again and again in each of Rose's nine lives, just as it does for each of us as we grow into adulthood. What are the consequences of our biggest choices? How would life change if we let go of our preconceived ideas of ourselves and became someone completely new? Rose Napolitano's experience of choosing and then choosing again shows us in an utterly compelling way what it means, literally, to reinvent a life and, sometimes, become a different kind of woman than we ever imagined. A stunning novel about love, loss, betrayal, divorce, death, a woman's career and her identity, The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano is about finding one's way into a future that wasn't the future one planned, and the ways that fate intercedes when we least expect it.

The Nine

Author: Tracy Townsend
Publisher: Pyr
ISBN: 1633883426
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 408

Book Description
In the dark streets of Corma exists a book that writes itself, a book that some would kill for... Black market courier Rowena Downshire is just trying to pay her mother’s freedom from debtor's prison when an urgent and unexpected delivery leads her face to face with a creature out of nightmares. Rowena escapes with her life, but the strange book she was ordered to deliver is stolen. The Alchemist knows things few men have lived to tell about, and when Rowena shows up on his doorstep, frightened and empty-handed, he knows better than to turn her away. What he discovers leads him to ask for help from the last man he wants to see—the former mercenary, Anselm Meteron. Across town, Reverend Phillip Chalmers awakes in a cell, bloodied and bruised, facing a creature twice his size. Translating the stolen book may be his only hope for survival; however, he soon realizes the book may be a fabled text written by the Creator Himself, tracking the nine human subjects of His Grand Experiment. In the wrong hands, it could mean the end of humanity. Rowena and her companions become the target of conspirators who seek to use the book for their own ends. But how can this unlikely team be sure who the enemy is when they can barely trust each other? And what will happen when the book reveals a secret no human was meant to know?