Ngugi wa Thiongos powerful prison memoir begins half an hour before his release on 12 December 1978. A year earlier, he recalls, armed police arrived at his home and took him to Kenyas Kamiti Maximum Security Prison. There, Ngugi lives in a block alongside other political prisoners, but he refuses to give in to the humiliation. He decides to write a novel in secret, on toilet paper it is a book that will become his classic,Devil on the Cross.

Wrestling with the Devilis Ngugis unforgettable account of the drama and challenges of living under twenty-four-hour surveillance. He captures not only the pain caused by his isolation from his family, but also the spirit of defiance and the imaginative endeavours that allowed him to survive.

Ngugi wa Thiongois one of the leading writers and scholars at work in the world today. His books include the novelsPetals of Blood, for which he was imprisoned by the Kenyan government in 1977,A Grain of WheatandWizard of the Crow;the memoirs,Dreams in a Time of War,In the House of the InterpreterandBirth of a Dream Weaver;and the essays,Decolonizing the Mind,Something Torn and NewandGlobalectics.Recipient of many honours, among them ten honorary doctorates, he is currently Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine.