I have been wanting to read Thiong’o’s work for a while now, and this one piqued my interest when it appeared on the International Booker longlist in 2021. It was originally written in Gikuyu and the author himself translated it into English. It’s a creation myth, an epic poem, and for that reason I do think the audio works really well. Such stories give themselves to oral recitation, the repetition sounds great and overall the narrator does an excellent job. However, there were some jarring parts where I guess the microphone stopped working properly or something? And it’d be super loud or weirdly muffled for a sentence or two.

Content wise, sometimes the story did lose me. But I was fully invested in all the ogre parts, it felt like a classic adventure tale, heroes overcoming tasks and challenges - including an ogre who never stops shitting, frankly iconic.

It didn’t leave a massive impact on me though.