Binyavanga Wainaina tumbled through his middle-class Kenyan childhood 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 mothers beauty parlour black mamba bicycle bells mechanics in Nairobi the music of Michael Jackson
- all punctuated by the infectious laughter of his brother & sister. 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. Resolutely avoiding stereotype & cliche Wainaina paints every scene in One Day I Will Write About This Place with a highly distinctive & hugely memorable brush.