Abdulrazak Gurnah vividly captures colonial and post-colonial histories of abuse and dispossession, but also startling acts of reclamation and renewal.
When Abdulrazak Gurnah was named winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021, the German translation of his novel "Paradise" was out of print. In early December, it was re-released. "Paradise" upends the prevailing black-and-white view of colonialism in the most striking manner. By Felix Stephan
When Abdulrazak Gurnah was named winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021, the German translation of his novel "Paradise" was out of print. In early December, it was re-released. "Paradise" upends the prevailing black-and-white view of colonialism in the most striking manner. By Felix Stephan
ParadiseAbdulrazak GurnahNew York: The New Press, 1994Pp. 246It is roughly a decade since the Nobel Prize in Literature ventured out of the global North. Even then, this year’s recipient, Abdulrazak Gurnah, resides in the UK, but he was born in Zanzibar, now part of Tanzania. His ancestry is Arab, his first language, Swahili, and his writing reflects this diverse background.