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Book Cover for: Paradise: By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021, Abdulrazak Gurnah

Paradise: By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021

Abdulrazak Gurnah

Paperback
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Paradise is at once the story of an African boy's coming of age, a tragic love story, and a tale of the corruption of traditional African patterns by European colonialism. It presents a major African voice to American readers - a voice that prompted Peter Tinniswood to write in the London Times, reviewing Gurnah's previous novel, "Mr. Gurnah is a very fine writer. I am certain he will become a great one." Paradise is Abdulrazak Gurnah's great novel. At twelve, Yusuf, the protagonist of this twentieth-century odyssey, is sold by his father in repayment of a debt. From the simple life of rural Africa, Yusuf is thrown into the complexities of precolonial urban East Africa - a fascinating world in which Muslim black Africans, Christian missionaries, and Indians from the subcontinent coexist in a fragile, subtle social hierarchy. Through the eyes of Yusuf, Gurnah depicts communities at war, trading safaris gone awry, and the universal trials of adolescence. Then, just as Yusuf begins to comprehend the choices required of him, he and everyone around him must adjust to the new reality of European colonialism. The result is a page-turning saga that covers the same territory as the novels of Isak Dinesen and William Boyd, but does so from a perspective never before available on that seldom-chronicled part of the world.

Book Details

  • Publisher: New Press
  • Publish Date: May 1st, 1995
  • Pages: 256
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.30in - 5.40in - 0.70in - 0.65lb
  • EAN: 9781565841635
  • Categories: • Coming of Age• Literary• World Literature - Africa - East Africa

About the Author

Gurnah, Abdulrazak: - Abdulrazak Gurnah is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is the author of ten novels, including Paradise (The New Press), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award. He lives in Canterbury, England.

Praise for this book

Praise for Paradise:
"An evocative portrait of Africa on the brink of change. . . . A poignant meditation on the nature of freedom and the loss of innocence, for both a single sensitive boy and an entire continent."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Gurnah masterfully interweaves Yusuf's story with the larger historical forces transforming the continent, all in a lush, seductive language that revels in its powers of storytelling."
--Los Angeles Times

"Vibrant. . . . Powerful. . . . Evokes the Edenic natural beauty of a continent on the verge of full-scale imperialist takeover by the European powers. . . . Gurnah conjures a cauldron of animosities among African Muslims, Indian merchants, European farmers, and native tribes."
--Publishers Weekly

"A fascinating coming-of-age story and an indictment of the European colonization of Africa, with side ventures into African social and religious dynamics . . . warmly recommended."
--Library Journal (starred review)