An incisive novel laying bare the contradictory societal response to gender, sex and redemption.
Rinsing Mukami's Soul looks at revenge as a powerful tool for reclamation when young Mukami's carefully ordered life is cruelly thrust into scandal.
Njambi McGrath, award winning author of
Through the Leopard's Gaze, delivers this stunning debut novel examining the validity of fury as response when a young Kenyan girl's mistakes in first love are ruthlessly held against her by a paternalistic society.
Mukami is a young scholarship student at a prestigious boarding school. She has a clear path ahead of her, but a deceptive smile, a school expulsion and an impossible pregnancy see her well ordered life hurtling towards complete and utter disarray.
Facing disappointment from her family and finding that innocence is not a strong enough place from which to mount a defence, she declares revenge. This charged novel asks us to question why girls and women are often left to fight for justice from lonely places in societies that prefer them silenced.
Industry Reviews
What a heart wrenching book... I loved the interweaving of Gikuyu mythology, distant, and past history with Mukami's desperate life. A clever mind with sharp skill is clearly at work here. Events tied together in strange, mysterious ways. The book is both extended metaphor and identifiably Kenyan. * Makena Onjerika, 2018 Winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing *
Rinsing Mukami's Soul' is an immersive experience. We fall in love with Mukami from the first page, as she experiences the turbulence and thrill of first love. We stay with Mukami as her world tumbles and she tries to save herself. McGrath takes us on a gritty yet spirited ride through 1980s Kenya, a society wrestling with corruption and grief in the wake of independence. McGrath is a talented writer. She manages to balance brutal realities with a light humourous touch that make 'Rinsing Mukami's Soul' a meaningful and entertaining read. * Isabelle Dupuy, Living the Dream *
