Abdulrazak Gurnah – författare

**By the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021**A BBC RADIO 4 Book at Bedtime SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 1994'A poetic and vividly conjured book about Africa and the brooding power of the unknown' Independent on Sunday'Lingering and exquisite' Guardian'An obliterated world is enthrallingly retrieved' Sunday Times____________________________Born in East Africa, Yusuf has few qualms about the journey he is to make. It never occurs to him to ask why he is accompanying Uncle Aziz or why the trip has been organised so suddenly, and he does not think to ask when he will be returning. But the truth is that his ‘uncle' is a rich and powerful merchant and Yusuf has been pawned to him to pay his father's debts. Paradise is a rich tapestry of myth, dreams and Biblical and Koranic tradition, the story of a young boy's coming of age against the backdrop of an Africa increasingly corrupted by colonialism and violence.

From the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature - 'a maestro' (Guardian). A captivating story of the intertwined lives of three young people coming-of-age in postcolonial East Africa **Selected as a book to look out for in 2025 by the Guardian, Observer, Irish Times and BBC****A Time Book of the Year 2025**‘A poignant portrait of love, friendship and betrayal’ Guardian‘Storytelling mastery’ Observer_________________________________________________________Badar’s story truly begins on the day when, aged fifteen, he is brought to Mistress’s great house in Dar es Salaam – where he proves a quick learner, and gains the friendship of Karim, the young man of the house.But then a false accusation sees Badar banished from the place he has come to call home. Exiled, to a run-down hotel on the coast of Zanzibar, Badar must build a new life for himself. And when Karim comes to see his old friend in his new life, he is captivated by temptations that will test the two young men’s friendship to a breaking point.**Shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Awards 2026: Fiction With A Sense of Place**

By the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature‘The elegance and control of Gurnah's writing, and his understanding of how quietly and slowly and repeatedly a heart can break, make this a deeply rewarding novel’ Kamila Shamsie, Guardian________________________For seven-year-old Salim, the pillars upholding his small universe – his indifferent father, his adored uncle, his treasured books, the daily routines of government school and Koran lessons – seem unshakeable.But it is the 1970s, and the winds of change are blowing through Zanzibar: suddenly Salim’s father is gone, and the island convulses with violence and corruption the wake of a revolution. It will only be years later, making his way through an alien and hostile London, that Salim will begin to understand the shame and exploitation festering at the heart of his family’s history. ________________________‘Riveting … The measured elegance of Gurnah’s prose renders his protagonist in a manner almost uncannily real’ New York Times‘Glittering ... Each work is different from the last, yet they build into a powerfully evocative oeuvre that keeps coming back to the same questions, in spare, graceful prose, about the ties that bind and the ties that fray’ Telegraph‘A colourful tale of life in a Zanzibar village, where passions and politics reshape a family… Powerful’ Mail on Sunday

BY THE WINNER OF THE 2021 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURESHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTIONLONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 WALTER SCOTT PRIZE‘Riveting and heartbreaking ... A compelling novel, one that gathers close all those who were meant to be forgotten, and refuses their erasure’ Maaza Mengiste, Guardian‘A brilliant and important book for our times, by a wondrous writer’ Philippe Sands, New Statesman, Books of the Year_______________While he was still a little boy, Ilyas was stolen from his parents by the German colonial troops. After years away, fighting in a war against his own people, he returns to his village to find his parents gone, and his sister Afiya given away.Another young man returns at the same time. Hamza was not stolen for the war, but sold into it; he has grown up at the right hand of an officer whose protection has marked him life. With nothing but the clothes on his back, he seeks only work and security – and the love of the beautiful Afiya. As fate knots these young people together, as they live and work and fall in love, the shadow of a new war on another continent lengthens and darkens, ready to snatch them up and carry them away…_______________‘One of the world’s most prominent postcolonial writers … He has consistently and with great compassion penetrated the effects of colonialism in East Africa and its effects on the lives of uprooted and migrating individuals’ Anders Olsson, chairman of the Nobel Committee‘In book after book, he guides us through seismic historic moments and devastating societal ruptures while gently outlining what it is that keeps those families, friendships and loving spaces intact, if not fully whole’ Maaza Mengiste‘Rarely in a lifetime can you open a book and find that reading it encapsulates the enchanting qualities of a love affair ... One scarcely dares breathe while reading it for fear of breaking the enchantment’ The Times

**By the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021**LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2002'One scarcely dares breathe while reading it for fear of breaking the enchantment' The Times_______________On a late November afternoon Saleh Omar arrives at Gatwick Airport from Zanzibar, a far away island in the Indian Ocean. With him he has a small bag in which lies his most precious possession - a mahogany box containing incense. He used to own a furniture shop, have a house and be a husband and father. Now he is an asylum seeker from paradise; silence his only protection. Meanwhile Latif Mahmud, someone intimately connected with Saleh's past, lives quietly alone in his London flat. When Saleh and Latif meet in an English seaside town, a story is unravelled. It is a story of love and betrayal, seduction and possession, and of a people desperately trying to find stability amidst the maelstrom of their times.

**By the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021**'A careful and heartfelt exploration of the way memory inevitably consoles and disappoints us' Sunday Times 'Beautifully written and pleasurable ... The work of a maestro' Guardian'An absorbing novel about abandonment and loss' Daily Telegraph___________________________________Early one morning in 1899, in a small town along the coast from Mombasa, Hassanali sets out for the mosque. But he never gets there, for out of the desert stumbles an ashen and exhausted Englishman who collapses at his feet. That man is Martin Pearce - writer, traveller and something of an Orientalist. After Pearce has recuperated, he visits Hassanali to thank him for his rescue and meets Hassanali's sister Rehana; he is immediately captivated. In this crumbling town on the edge of civilised life, with the empire on the brink of a new century, a passionate love affair begins that brings two cultures together and which will reverberate through three generations and across continents.

Salman Rushdie is a major contemporary writer, who engages with some of the vital issues of our times: migrancy, postcolonialism, religious authoritarianism. This Companion offers a comprehensive introduction to his entire oeuvre. Part I provides thematic readings of Rushdie and his work, with chapters on how Bollywood films are intertextual with the fiction, the place of family and gender in the work, the influence of English writing and reflections on the fatwa. Part II discusses Rushdie's importance for postcolonial writing and provides detailed interpretations of his fiction. In one volume, this book provides a stimulating introduction to the author and his work in a range of expert essays and readings. With its detailed chronology of Rushdie's life and a comprehensive bibliography of further reading, this volume will be invaluable to undergraduates studying Rushdie and to the general reader interested in his work.

Salman Rushdie is a major contemporary writer, who engages with some of the vital issues of our times: migrancy, postcolonialism, religious authoritarianism. This Companion offers a comprehensive introduction to his entire oeuvre. Part I provides thematic readings of Rushdie and his work, with chapters on how Bollywood films are intertextual with the fiction, the place of family and gender in the work, the influence of English writing and reflections on the fatwa. Part II discusses Rushdie's importance for postcolonial writing and provides detailed interpretations of his fiction. In one volume, this book provides a stimulating introduction to the author and his work in a range of expert essays and readings. With its detailed chronology of Rushdie's life and a comprehensive bibliography of further reading, this volume will be invaluable to undergraduates studying Rushdie and to the general reader interested in his work.

By the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in LiteratureAbbas has never told anyone about his past; about what happened before he was a sailor on the high seas, before he met his wife Maryam outside a Boots in Exeter, before they settled into a quiet life in Norwich with their children, Jamal and Hanna. Now, at the age of sixty-three, he suffers a collapse that renders him bedbound and unable to speak about things he thought he would one day have to.Jamal and Hanna have grown up and gone out into the world. They were both born in England but cannot shake a sense of apartness. Hanna calls herself Anna now, and has just moved to a new city to be near her boyfriend. She feels the relationship is headed somewhere serious, but the words have not yet been spoken out loud. Jamal, the listener of the family, moves into a student house and is captivated by a young woman with dark-blue eyes and her own, complex story to tell. Abbas's illness forces both children home, to the dark silences of their father and the fretful capability of their mother Maryam, who began life as a foundling and has never thought to find herself, until now.________________________‘Gurnah is a master storyteller' FINANCIAL TIMES‘Gurnah writes with wonderful insight about family relationships and he folds in the layers of history with elegance and warmth' THE TIMES

By the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature'There is a wonderful sardonic eloquence to this unnamed narrator's voice' Financial Times'I don't think I've ever read a novel that is so convincingly and hauntingly sad about the loss of home' Independent on Sunday_____________________He thinks, as he escapes from Zanzibar, that he will probably never return, and yet the dream of studying in England matters above that.Things do not happen quite as he imagined – the school where he teaches is cramped and violent, he forgets how it feels to belong. But there is Emma, beautiful, rebellious Emma, who turns away from her white, middle-class roots to offer him love and bear him a child. And in return he spins stories of his home and keeps her a secret from his family. Twenty years later, when the barriers at last come down in Zanzibar, he is able and compelled to go back. What he discovers there, in a story potent with truth, will change the entire vision of his life.

By the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021A searing tale of a young woman discovering her troubled family history and cultural past‘Gurnah writes with wonderful insight about family relationships and he folds in the layers of history with elegance and warmth’ The Times_________________________________Dottie Badoura Fatma Balfour finds solace amidst the squalor of her childhood by spinning warm tales of affection about her beautiful names. But she knows nothing of their origins, and little of her family history – or the abuse her ancestors suffered as they made their home in Britain.At seventeen, she takes on the burden of responsibility for her brother and sister and is obsessed with keeping the family together. However, as Sophie, lumpen yet voluptuous, drifts away, and the confused Hudson is absorbed into the world of crime, Dottie is forced to consider her own needs. Building on her fragmented, tantalising memories, she begins to clear a path through life, gradually gathering the confidence to take risks, to forge friendships and to challenge the labels that have been forced upon her.

By the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature ‘Demands to be read and reread, for its humour, generosity of spirit and clear-sighted vision’ Evening Standard‘Gurnah zooms in on individual acts of violence ... and unexpected acts of kindness’ Daily Telegraph________________________Demoralised by small persecutions and the squalor and poverty of his life, Daud takes refuge in his imagination. He composes wry, sardonic letters hectoring friends and enemies, and invents a lurid colonial past for every old man he encounters. His greatest solace is cricket and the symbolic defeat of the empire at the hands of the mighty West Indies.Although subject to attacks of bitterness and remorse, his captivating sense of humour never deserts him as he struggles to come to terms with the horror of his past and the meaning of his pilgrimage to England.

The debut novel by the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in LiteratureVehement, comic and shrewd, Abdulrazak Gurnah’s first novel is an unwavering contemplation of East African coastal lifePoverty and depravity wreak havoc on Hassan Omar’s family. Amid great hardship he decides to escape. The arrival of independence brings new upheavals as well as the betrayal of the promise of freedom. The new government, fearful of an exodus of its most able men, discourages young people from travelling abroad and refuses to release examination results. Deprived of a scholarship, Hassan travels to Nairobi to stay with a wealthy uncle, in the hope that he will release his mother’s rightful share of the family inheritance. The collision of past secrets and future hopes, the compound of fear and frustration, beauty and brutality, create a fierce tale of undeniable power.____________________‘Gurnah is a master storyteller' FINANCIAL TIMES'Exile has given Gurnah a perspective on the “balance between things” that is astonishing, superb' OBSERVER'A captivating storyteller' GUARDIAN'Gurnah etches with biting incisiveness the experiences of immigrants exposed to contempt, hostility or patronising indifference on their arrival in Britain' SPECTATOR

‘One of the world’s most prominent postcolonial writers … He has consistently and with great compassion penetrated the effects of colonialism and its effects on the lives of uprooted and migrating individuals’ Anders Olsson, chairman of the Nobel CommitteeDelivered in London on 7 December 2021, 'Writing' is the lecture of the Nobel Laureate in Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah. Collected here with three further essays, it explores his coming-of-age, his early experiences in 1960s Britain, the narratives of oceans, his lifelong love affair with reading, and the power of writing to subvert the stories that have been handed to us. Generous, funny and wise, this collection is the perfect introduction to the storyteller described as ‘one of Africa’s most important living writers’; whose work, now spanning four decades, continues to spin wonder and magic while offering penetrating insight into exile, migration and homecoming. 'In book after book, he guides us through seismic historic moments and devastating societal ruptures while gently outlining what it is that keeps those families, friendships and loving spaces intact' Maaza Mengiste'A wondrous writer' Philippe Sands

**Selected as a Book of the Summer 2025 by the Guardian, Financial Times, Granta, Economist and the BBC****Selected as a book of the year 2025 by the Financial Times and Time Magazine**The new novel from the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature - 'a maestro' (Guardian). A captivating story of the intertwined lives of three young people coming-of-age in postcolonial East Africa ‘A poignant portrait of love, friendship and betrayal’ Guardian‘Storytelling mastery’ Observer‘A piece of great, satisfying storytelling to lose yourself in’ Samantha Harvey, Guardian Books of the Summer‘The reader can only rejoice at Gurnah’s skill in giving us the whole of a life in such nimble scenes’ Financial Times‘Another glittering tapestry of a novel from a master storyteller of our times’ Irish Times_________________________________________________________What are we given, and what do we have to take for ourselves? It is the 1990s. Growing up in Zanzibar, three very different young people – Karim, Fauzia and Badar – are coming of age, and dreaming of great possibilities in their young nation. But for Badar, an uneducated servant boy who has never known his parents, it seems as if all doors are closed. Brought into a lowly position in a great house in Dar es Salaam, Badar finds the first true home of his life – and the friendship of Karim, the young man of the house. Even when a shattering false accusation sees Badar sent away, Karim and Fauzia refuse to turn away from their friend. But as the three of them take their first steps in love, infatuation, work and parenthood, their bond is tested – and Karim is tempted into a betrayal that will change all of their lives forever.‘In reading this wise new novel, we the readers become a bit more ready to understand what it means to be human’ Elif Shafak, New Statesman‘Storytelling mastery, at once coming-of-age chamber piece and wide-angled post-colonial panorama … narrated in a quicksilver style that gives you the pleasurable sense that you’re putty in the hands of a warm yet clear-eyed authorial intelligence’ Observer

**Selected as a Book of the Summer 2025 by the Guardian, Financial Times, Granta, Economist and the BBC****Selected as a book of the year 2025 by the Financial Times and Time Magazine**The new novel from the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature - 'a maestro' (Guardian). A captivating story of the intertwined lives of three young people coming-of-age in postcolonial East Africa ‘A poignant portrait of love, friendship and betrayal’ Guardian‘Storytelling mastery’ Observer‘A piece of great, satisfying storytelling to lose yourself in’ Samantha Harvey, Guardian Books of the Summer‘The reader can only rejoice at Gurnah’s skill in giving us the whole of a life in such nimble scenes’ Financial Times‘Another glittering tapestry of a novel from a master storyteller of our times’ Irish Times_________________________________________________________What are we given, and what do we have to take for ourselves? It is the 1990s. Growing up in Zanzibar, three very different young people – Karim, Fauzia and Badar – are coming of age, and dreaming of great possibilities in their young nation. But for Badar, an uneducated servant boy who has never known his parents, it seems as if all doors are closed. Brought into a lowly position in a great house in Dar es Salaam, Badar finds the first true home of his life – and the friendship of Karim, the young man of the house. Even when a shattering false accusation sees Badar sent away, Karim and Fauzia refuse to turn away from their friend. But as the three of them take their first steps in love, infatuation, work and parenthood, their bond is tested – and Karim is tempted into a betrayal that will change all of their lives forever.‘In reading this wise new novel, we the readers become a bit more ready to understand what it means to be human’ Elif Shafak, New Statesman‘Storytelling mastery, at once coming-of-age chamber piece and wide-angled post-colonial panorama … narrated in a quicksilver style that gives you the pleasurable sense that you’re putty in the hands of a warm yet clear-eyed authorial intelligence’ Observer