One day in summer, three lives are about to change forever.
After two decades of looking after others, this is the day
...
Binyavanga Wainaina tumbled through his middle-class Kenyan childhod out of kilter with the world around him. This world came to him as a chaos of loud & colourful sounds: the hair dryers at his mother's beauty parlour, black mamba bicycle bells, mechanics in Nairobi, the music of Michael Jackson
- all punctuated by the infectious laughter of his brother & sister, Jimmy & Ciru. He could fall in with their patterns, but it would take him a while to carve out his own. In this vivid & compelling debut, Wainaina takes us through his school days, his failed attempt to study in South Africa, a moving family reunion in Uganda, & his travels around Kenya. The landscape in front of him always claims his main attention, but he also evokes the shifting political scene that unsettles his views on family, tribe, & nationhood. Throughout, reading is his refuge & his solace. & when, in 2002, a writing prize comes through, the door is opened for him to pursue the career that perhaps had been beckoning all along. A series of fascinating reporting assignments follows in other African countries. Finally he circles back to a Kenya in the throes of postelection violence & finds he is not the only one questioning the old certainties. Resolutely avoiding stereotype & cliche, Wainaina paints every scene in One Day I Will Write About This Place with a highly distinctive & hugely memorable brush.