ABDULRAZAK GURNAH (b. 1948) is a Tanzanian novelist and one of the world's most prominent post-colonial authors.  Until his recent retirement, he has been Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent.  He was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents."  He is the first black African writer to win the prize since Wole Soyinka in 1986.

"Gurnah's dedication to truth and his aversion to simplification are striking," the Nobel Committee said in a statement.  "His novels recoil from stereotypical descriptions and open our gaze to a culturally diversified East Africa unfamiliar to many in other parts of the world."

The theme of the refugee's disruption runs throughout his work.  His first three novels, MEMORY OF DEPARTURE (1987), PILGRIMS WAY (1988) and DOTTIE (1990), document the immigrant experience in contemporary Britain from different perspectives.  ADMIRING SILENCE (1996) tells the story of a young man who leaves Zanzibar and emigrates to England where he marries and becomes a teacher.  A return visit to his native country 20 years later profoundly affects his attitude towards both himself and his marriage.  BY THE SEA (2001), is narrated by Saleh Omar, an elderly asylum-seeker living in an English seaside town, and was longlisted for the Booker and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Award.  DESERTION (2005) was shortlisted for a 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize.

THE LAST GIFT (2011) relates thematically to Pilgrims Way and ends with something of the same bitter brew when the ailing refugee Abbas dies and bequeaths the gift of the book’s title, consisting of a tape recording of a cruel history unknown to the surviving family.  GRAVEL HEART (2017) further develops Gurnah's theme of a young person’s confrontation with evil and uncomprehending surroundings.  In his most recent novel, AFTERLIVES (2020), he considers the generational effects of colonialism and war, and asks us to consider what remains in the aftermath of so much devastation.

In addition to the fiction below, this torrent also includes an unitemized selection of stories, essays and interviews (all PDF) drawn from the periodical press or collections edited by others.


The following books are in ePUB format unless otherwise noted:

== NOVELS ==

* Admiring Silence (Bloomsbury, 2016)
* Afterlives (Bloomsbury, 2020)
* By the Sea (New Press, 2001) — PDF
* Desertion (Anchor, 2006)
* Dottie (Bloomsbury, 2016)
* Gravel Heart (Bloomsbury, 2017)
* Last Gift, The (Bloomsbury, 2014)
* Memory of Departure (Bloomsbury, 2016)
* Pilgrims Way (Bloomsbury, 2016)

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