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In his first lyrical epic, Booker Prize finalist Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o tells the story of the founding of the Gĩkũyũ people of Kenya from a strongly feminist perspective. In what The New Yorker calls “an epic poem rivalling the Iliad in body count and surpassing it in whimsy,” this verse narrative blends folklore, mythology, adventure, and allegory. After Gĩkũyũ and his wife Mũmbi ask God to find partners for their ten beautiful daughters—called “The Perfect Nine”—men start to appear the next day. In this “vivid, exhilarating tale” (Daily Mail), the family sets a series of challenges and tasks for 99 suitors who seek the daughters’ hands in marriage, to slowly cull them down to a fateful ten. What ensues is a “beautifully told epic” (The New Statesman) with all the elements of adventure—suspense, danger, humor, and sacrifice.
Written by the leading African novelist, who was annually tipped to win the Nobel Prize in Literature before his passing, The Perfect Nine is a quest for the beautiful as an ideal of living and as an allegory for the motivating force behind migrations of African peoples. As the author noted, “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.”
—Literary Hub
“[The Perfect Nine] departs from the sprawl of his past novels into an engaging if slight lyrical epic. Combining Homeric verse with oral storytelling tropes—choruses, chants, songs—he retells the origin myth of the Gĩkũyũ, Kenya’s largest tribe. . . . Thiong’o’s fans will appreciate this.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Essential reading and especially vital for our times. . . . Emphasizing fundamental cycles of birth, life, love, and death, this tale is centered on the Gĩkũyũ but connected to all of us and our humanity, a story to be told and retold, as it has been in various forms, for generations.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“In this sinuous retelling by the great Kenyan writer, the founding myth of the Gĩkũyũ people emerges as an epic poem rivalling the Iliad in body count and surpassing it in whimsy.”
—The New Yorker
“The Perfect Nine uses a deceptively simple language that lays bare deep truths.”
—Financial Times
“A beautiful work of integration that not only refuses distinctions between ‘high art’ and traditional storytelling, but supplies that all-too-rare human necessity: the sense that life has meaning.”
—The Guardian
“Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s first venture into epic poetry is a triumph of the form, which resounds with the lyrical heartbeat of the Gĩkũyũ people in Kenya as Ngũgĩ chronicles their mythic history.”
—World Literature Today
“A vivid, exhilarating tale with a surprisingly modern philosophy that emphasises the importance of tolerance, feminism and respect for the environment.”
—Daily Mail
“A beautifully told epic about the fundamentals of humanity.”
—The New Statesman
“The Perfect Nine is one of the year’s great discoveries.”
—The Economist
“The Perfect Nine is a retelling and expansion of the creation myth of the Gĩkũyũ people, passed down orally over generations, and from it Ngũgĩ has fashioned a sublime, joyful epic poem that can be read—by anyone, Gĩkũyũ or otherwise—almost like a gospel, describing the nature of God, the world, and how we should live in it.”
—Colorado Review
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (1938–2025) was a leading Kenyan author and academic. He is the author of A Grain of Wheat; Weep Not, Child; and Petals of Blood, as well as Birth of a Dream Weaver, Wrestling with the Devil, Minutes of Glory, and Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas (all from The New Press). He was the recipient of twelve honorary doctorates, among other awards, and was nominated for the Man Booker International Prize.