In this episode, I'm chatting with Abdulzarak Gurnah about how his life has changed since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, 2021, his new novel, Afterlives, colonialism in Africa, and what drew him from Tanzania to the county of Kent in the UK and a life dedicated to teaching.
Abdulrazak Gurnah is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021. He is the author of ten novels: Memory of Departure, Pilgrims Way, Dottie, Paradise (shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award), Admiring Silence, By the Sea (longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Award), Desertion (shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize) The Last Gift, Gravel Heart, and Afterlives, which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Fiction 2021 and longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize. He was Professor of English at the University of Kent, and was a Man Booker Prize judge in 2016. He lives in Canterbury.
Afterlives, Abdulrazak Gurnah