Kintu

Format:

Book

Title:

Kintu

Author:

Makumbi, Jennifer Nansubuga author

ISBN:

9781945492013

Publication:

Oakland, California : Transit Books, [2017]

Physical Description:

viii, 443 pages ; 21 cm

Series title(s):

Kwani? series ;

Number in series:

General Note:

"First published in 2014 by Kwani Trust, Nairobi ."--Title verso page.

Contents:

Kintu Kidda -- Suubi Nnakintu -- Kanani Kintu -- Isaac Newton Kintu -- Misirayimu (Miisi) Kintu -- The homecoming.

Summary:

'First published in Kenya in 2014 to critical and popular acclaim, Kintu is a modern classic, a multilayered narrative that reimagines the history of Uganda through the cursed bloodline of the Kintu clan. Divided into six sections, the novel begins in 1750, when Kintu Kidda sets out for the capital to pledge allegiance to the new leader of the Buganda Kingdom. Along the way, he unleashes a curse that will plague his family for generations. In an ambitious tale of a clan and a nation, Makumbi weaves together the stories of Kintu's descendants as they seek to break from the burden of their shared past and reconcile the inheritance of tradition and the modern world that is their future."--Back cover.

Subject(s):

Families -- Uganda -- Fiction.

Ethnohistory -- Uganda -- Fiction.

Chiefdoms -- Uganda -- History -- Fiction.

Uganda -- History -- Fiction.

Uganda -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Uganda -- History -- Fiction.

Uganda -- Fiction.

Uganda.

Genre:

Ugandan fiction (English)

Added Author:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Dallas Public Library	FICTION - MAKUMBI	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Salem Main Library	Makumbi, J.	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2017

Winner of the Windham-Campbell Prize

Winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize

"A soaring and sublime epic. One of those great stories that was just waiting to be told."-- Marlon James, Man Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

First published in Kenya in 2014 to critical and popular acclaim, Kintu is a modern classic, a multilayered narrative that reimagines the history of Uganda through the cursed bloodline of the Kintu clan. Divided into six sections, the novel begins in 1750, when Kintu Kidda sets out for the capital to pledge allegiance to the new leader of the Buganda Kingdom. Along the way, he unleashes a curse that will plague his family for generations. In an ambitious tale of a clan and a nation, Makumbi weaves together the stories of Kintu's descendants as they seek to break from the burden of their shared past and reconcile the inheritance of tradition and the modern world that is their future.

Author Notes

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi , a Ugandan novelist and short story writer, has a PhD from Lancaster University, where she now teaches. Her first novel, Kintu , won the Kwani? Manuscript Project in 2013 and was longlisted for the Etisalat Prize in 2014. Her story "Let's Tell This Story Properly" won the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She is currently working on her second novel and a collection of short stories, Travel Is to See, Return Is to Tell . Jennifer lives in Manchester, UK with her husband, Damian, and her son, Jordan.

Aaron Bady is a writer in Oakland and an editor at The New Inquiry .

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Makumbi's debut novel is a sprawling family chronicle that explores Uganda's national identity through a brilliant interlacing of history, politics, and myth. In 2004, a man named Kamu Kintu is branded a thief and killed by a vicious crowd. While his body lies unclaimed in the mortuary, we follow Kintu's lineage back to 1750, when the ambitious Kintu Kidda journeys with his tribe to pay tribute to the new regent of the Kingdom of Buganda, with whom he hopes to gain favor. Instead, he inadvertently causes the death of his own son and awakens a curse that will plague his offspring for generations. There's Suubi Nnakintu, who takes a taxi bound for the village of her youth, hoping to find the biological father who abandoned her; the Christian convert Kanani Kintu who, with his wife, stakes his place in heaven on Ugandan Independence; precocious Isaac Newton Kintu, whose future depends on the results of an HIV test; and the slain Kamu's father, Miisi Kintu, a western-educated doctor struggling against both negative stereotypes of Africans abroad and prejudice among his countrymen at home. All of the members of the Kintu bloodline must come together and reckon with the past and their place in their country if they are ever to be free of the curse that claimed Kamu. A masterpiece of cultural memory, Kintu is elegantly poised on the crossroads of tradition and modernity. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal Review

This ambitious multigenerational tale of the cursed bloodline of Uganda's Kintu clan begins in 1750 with the treacherous journey of Kintu Kidda, who travels with his men through the o Lwera desert to prove his loyalty to the Bagandan kingdom, though his lineage differs. He has a number of families across the kingdom, but in an act of kindness, he adopts Kalema, son of Ntwire, a worker who tends his land. During one trek, Kintu hits Kalema for breaking custom, inadvertently killing him. He and his men refuse to share the details of the death with the village, but Ntwire senses that something is amiss and curses Kintu before leaving to search for his son. The narrative then chronicles the history of various clan members until 2004, when the author began writing this epic tale. Published in Kenya in 2014, this book won the Kwani Manuscript Prize and was long-listed for the Etisalat Prize for African Fiction. What is most impressive is the interwoven history and language of Uganda within the fictional narrative. VERDICT Reminiscent of -Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, this work will appeal to lovers of African literature.-Ashanti White, Fayetteville, NC © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.