ART & CULTURE
LLK’S 5 READS ABOUT
Kenya
Well-written books can take decades—even lifetimes—to craft. And even then, any single book can only scratch the surface when viewed in isolation. But with the right collection, you can piece together all the context needed to connect with nearly every aspect of a topic. So, since this is our first edition, let’s start with an elemental list—a collection of books that, when considered together, offer an initial scope of where we began and where we stand as a culture. If you’ve never read a Kenyan book, these are the titles to start with.
Out of Africa by Karen Blixen
This one is definitely something you’ve heard of—equally hated and beloved, often for the wrong reasons, but a staple nonetheless. At its core, the book is about grief. Karen loses her husband, her friends, and her beloved coffee farm. In totality, it reads like a eulogy for the failed settler experiment.
It’s hard not to find something to grasp onto in this wistful memoir, especially when you consider that these are the raw emotions of a young woman gradually shedding her naivety. The best part? You can actually read it in her former home, now a museum in Karen.
Leopard at the Door by Jennifer McVeigh
As heralded as Out of Africa is, there’s a blind spot in it. Behind the aristocratic lustre of colonial Kenya, what did their African staff really think of them?
This historical fiction novel opens with 18-year-old Rachel Fullsmith returning to Kenya after six years in the UK with her grandparents, following her mother’s death. Although Rachel is nostalgic for simpler times, the Kenya she returns to in the early ’50s couldn’t be more different: her father has a new, wicked girlfriend; the family farm is falling apart; and the Mau Mau rebellion is beginning to stir in the countryside.
The book is unflinching in its depiction of this dark period in the country’s history. And yet, it still functions as a coming-of- age story. Rachel is still finding herself—stepping into her womanhood in the face of this complex world we all share.
McVeigh perfectly weaves the experience of a country and a young woman growing up. It’s challenging. It’s excruciating at times. And the ending doesn’t even let readers off the hook, leaving some questions deliberately unanswered. Yet thanks to McVeigh’s excellent prose, what you walk away with is a desire to explore Kenya now that you understand it a little bit more.
Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor is one of Kenya’s finest writers, with a Caine Prize under her belt. To truly grasp this book, you first have to understand her. She cut her teeth in the early 2000s as part of the defiant Kwani? series—a literary movement where a cohort of talented writers challenged the status quo and redefined cultural norms. For a decade, readers waited for her big, glossy, ambitious novel. At times, it seemed like it might never come. Then came Dust.
Trying to fully describe Dust is like trying to sum up War & Peace. Any other novel might crumble under such a comparison, but Dust stands firm. Set against the backdrop of the near-civil- war skirmishes following Kenya’s 2007 post-election crisis, the novel weaves through different characters and timelines, unraveling what it means to be Kenyan— to carry the cultural trauma of a country constantly teetering between stability and calamity.
In its review, The New York Times remarked that within this book, you will find “the entirety of the human experience.”
Kenya: Between Hope & Despair by Daniel Branch
The only thing Kenyans love more than football is politics. And at times, politicians behave like professional wrestlers—one day a hero, the next a villain.
This book opens at a party celebrating the nation’s newfound independence, and through it, you witness the Odingas, the Kenyattas, and other political dynasties as they plot and mythologize in the heart of a young nation.
Paired with Dust, it reveals how seemingly innocuous decisions made behind the curtains of power rippled out, shaping the country in ways both profound and tragic.
By the time you finish this, you’ll never watch local news the same way again.
Drunk by Jackson Biko
The pantheon of Kenyan literature isn’t all self-serious sociological material. Some authors embrace the casual and the comedic.
Drunk follows a regular guy just tasting success… and alcohol. His love life, family, self-respect, and career all hinge on his ability to balance these two major forces in his life.
The book flies by—you could easily finish it in a day or two.
Fittingly, for a story about addiction, it’s nearly impossible to put down. It’s not a perfect book. But it’s charming.
And no other novel has captured contemporary Kenyan middle-class life quite like it.
