The River Between - Paperback

by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o (Author), Uzodinma Iweala (Introduction by), Chinua Achebe (Editor)

A 50th-anniversary edition of one of the most powerful novels by the great Kenyan author and Nobel Prize nominee

A legendary work of African literature, this moving and eye-opening novel lucidly captures the drama of a people and culture whose world has been overturned. The River Between explores life in the mountains of Kenya during the early days of white settlement. Faced with a choice between an alluring new religion and their own ancestral customs, the Gikuyu people are torn between those who fear the unknown and those who see beyond it.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Author Biography

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (1938-2025) was an award-winning novelist, playwright, and essayist from Kenya whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages. In addition to The River Between, his novels Devil on the Cross, A Grain of Wheat, Petals of Blood, and Weep Not, Child are available from Penguin Classics.

Uzodinma Iweala (introduction) is the author of the award-winning novel Beasts of No Nation and is one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists. He lives in Lagos, Nigeria, and New York City.