FEATURE

ABDULRAZAK GURNAH

Abdulrazak Gurnah has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2021 "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents." His body of work constitutes 10 novels, of which his novel, Paradise (1994), was shortlisted for both the Booker and the Whitbread Prize, his novel By the Sea (2001), was longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and his book Desertion (2005), was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize.

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The Wise Owl Team analyses Gurnah’s writing which mirrors the sense of loss of a displaced character, who struggles to sever cultural ties but is unable to let lose the fragile skeins that bind him to his roots. The analysis is made with reference to Gurnah’s novel The Last Gift

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Read the feature on the Zanzibar born writer