The Broken Word
An Epic Poem of the British Empire in Kenya, and the Mau Mau Uprising Against It
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The stunning debut from "one of the best British writers to emerge in the past decade." (Julian Barnes)
With a voice that is at once fierce and lyrical, Adam Foulds tells the story of the Mau Mau uprising against British colonial rule in 1950s Kenya. Tom, a young man who has returned to his family's farm, rapidly becomes caught up in the intensifying events of violence and brutality in a conflict Foulds illustrates as both utterly contemporary and yet deeply burdened by the history of race and empire in this region. The Broken Word was the recipient of the Costa (Whitbread) Poetry Award, and Foulds's The Quickening Maze was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize.
Adam Foulds
ADAM FOULDS was born in 1974, took a Creative Writing M.A. at the University of East Anglia, and now lives in South London. Foulds is the recipient of the 2008 Costa Poetry Award, for his book-length narrative poem, The Broken Word, as well as the 2008 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the 2008 Somerset Maugham Award, The Southbank Show Award for Literature and a 2007 Betty Trask Award. His novel The Quickening Maze was shortlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize. And it was announced at the 2013 London Book Fair that he is included on Granta's annual list of Best Young British Novelists, alongside Zadie Smith, Steven Hall, Tahmima Anam and Ross Raisin.
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