The central action in this novel by Ngugi wa Thiong'o takes place in December of 1963 in a village in Kenya that is preparing for the coming of Uhuru (Independence). However, the plot is non-linear, with a wealth of flashbacks and various twists and turns. There are also multiple storylines which are well-woven into a fascinating tapestry. The main story is indeed the coming of Independence Day, part of which involves identifying the person who betrayed Kihika, one of the leading freedom fighters from the village. Many of the flashbacks along this storyline involve the fight for freedom as well as details about what occurred in the detention camps. Another prominent storyline is that involving a love triangle between Mumbi and her two suitors, Gikonyo and Karanja. A third intriguing storyline involves Mugo, a man whom everyone recognizes as different yet feels drawn to. Ngugi portrays his inner conflict masterfully, especially in using biblical allusions to both Moses and Judas in relation to Mugo.

"A Grain of Wheat, James Ngugi's latest novel, is an extremely interesting piece of work because it brings a new theme to African literature--the effects on a people of the changes brought about in themselves by the demands of a bloody and bitter struggle for independence. How fit is one for peace, when one has made revolution one's life?" --Nadine Gordimer, Michigan Quarterly Review Fall 1970, p. 226.

"Ngugi's third novel, A Grain of Wheat (1967), is his most impressive work and one of the most complicated novels written by an African novelist during the last twenty-five years. . . . Structurally, A Grain of Wheat is much more involved than Ngugi's two earlier novels. Ngugi in flashbacks constantly shifts his point of view and his use of the temporal. The result is a mirror of the chaos of the Emergency itself. Besides telling the story from the point of view of several of his participants, the author again uses the lyrical collective consciousness. . . often combined with a quasi-documentary technique which is effectively utilized at strategic points throughout his narrative. The result is a novel which has all of the passions of human drama coupled with an historical objectivity rarely found except in nonfiction. --Charles R. Larson, The Emergence of African Fiction, rev. ed., 1972, Indiana UP, pp. 138-39.

"Gikonyo's secret ambition was to own a piece of land where he could settle his mother. But this needed money. The ambition to acquire wealth increased whenever he saw or thought of Mumbi, a girl whose voice and face caused an anguished throb in him. But he thought his heart was beating in the wilderness. Surely Mumbi, the most beautiful girl on the ridge, would never deign to bring him a calabash fill with cool water and say: drink this for me. Nevertheless, he waited and groped his way slowly. He saw Mumbi moving in the country paths among the pea-flowers, and green beans and maize plants, and he braced himself to make his desires known. But courage failed him. He greeted her and passed on." --pg. 87, Heinemann: London, 1967

The coming of Independence Day: "People moved from street to street singing. . . . Somewhere, a woman suggested we go and sing to Mugo, the hermit, at his hut. The cry was taken up by the crowd, who, even before the decision was taken, had already started tearing through the drizzle and the dark to Mugo's hut. For more than an hour Mugo's hut was taken prisoner. His name was on everybody's lips. We wove new legends around his name and imagined deeds. We hoped that Mugo would come out and join us, but he did not open the door to our knocks. When the hour of midnight came, people broke into one long ululation." --pg. 232, ibid

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