Kwani? Series
The Stone Hills of Maragoli
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9789966739278
No. of pages: 344
Size of book: 198mm x 128mm
Price: Ksh 500 ($17)
Year of Publication: 2010
“Life as a labourer is hard, but when Ombima, commits what he considers a “necessary” crime and watches the events that unfold, things change. He tries to cover up his deeds, which come to involve the entire village, bringing into focus human nature, relationships, love and breaking lives and vows. In this novel, Stanley Gazemba regales us with fresh insight, showing how much mastery and restraint he can exercise on narrative.”
The Stone Hills Of Maragoli was first published by Acacia Publishers. Now in it’s second edition print run under the Kwani? Series, it has received enthusiastic reviews.
“It is a story of the simple things of rural areas which turn out to be the pivots of life and told by a writer who has a way with word.”
-Wahome Mutahi, Sunday Nation.
“What makes The Stone Hills of Maragoli so special is that it has no pretensions about attempting to address issues of modernity, of city life, of “clash of cultures”, of the rural- urban divide...the issues it deals with are as immediate, even if they are beyond the gaze, beyond the limits of the urbanity that attracts most writers.”
Richard Bartlet, African Review of Books
“Once in a while I come across a novel that affirms life, without cheapening it, or sensationalizing; a book that presents a human condition with such mastery, it makes one proud to be alive…they are, for me, the sort of books that make literature great.”
-Binyavanga Wainaina, Sunday Standard.
Stanley Gazemba was born in Vihiga, Western Kenya , in 1974 and studied at the Kakamega High School . After school he worked as a tea-picker, a clerk in a steel factory in Mombasa , and a gardener in Nairobi . His first novel, The Stone Hills of Maragoli, won the Jomo Kenyatta Literary Prize in 2003, one of Kenya ‘s most prestigious literary awards. The African Review of Books described his book as “an ordinary tale of love, celebration, betrayal and revenge… all in a context that is at once familiar for its emotional impact and unfamiliar for its cultural environment”. Stanley lives in Nairobi and is currently working on several different literary projects..
P. O. Box 2895-00100 Nairobi Kenya | Tel: +254 (0) 20 444 1801 | Cell: +254 (0) 704 832 379 | Fax:+254 020 4441802 | Email: info@kwani.org