Abdulrazak Gurnah – Paradise

Abdulrazak Gurnah – Paradise

Genre:
Author:

Sold by his father in repayment of a debt, twelve-year-old Yusuf is thrown from his simple rural life into the complexities of precolonial urban East Africa. The ensuing journey leads to encounters with hostile tribes and even more hostile colonizers—ugly creatures with hair growing out of their ears and an unearned sense of authority. Through Yusuf’s eyes, Gurnah depicts a culture caught in an uneasy position between tradition and modernity, mysticism and rationality. The result is a page-turning saga that offers a unique perspective on the colonial world and masterfully explicates the themes that animate Gurnah’s oeuvre.