In a follow-up to his previous memoir, “Dreams in a Time of War,” acclaimed Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o continues the story of his childhood, focusing specifically on his time at the boarding school that shaped his intellectual and spiritual lives.

The author picks up the story in 1955, the year in which he entered Alliance High School, headed by principal Edward Carey Francis, a figure who looms large in wa Thiong’o’s narrative, and who viewed the school as a “grand opportunity to morally and intellectually mold a future leadership that could navigate among contending extremes.”