Abdulrazak Gurnah Knihy

Román nositele Nobelovy ceny za literaturu tematicky navazuje na autorův nejúspěšnější román Ráj. Když byl Ilyas ještě chlapec, ukradli ho rodičům na pobřeží východní Afriky němečtí koloniální vojáci. Po letech strávených mimo domov, kde bojoval proti svým vlastním lidem, se vrací domů a zjišťuje, že jeho rodiče jsou pryč a jeho sestra Afiya je de facto opuštěna a zotročena. Hamza se také vrací z války domů, zjizvený na těle i na duši, a kromě oblečení nemá nic - dokud nepotká krásnou, neohroženou Afiyu. Zatímco tito mladí lidé žijí, pracují a zamilovávají se a jejich osudy jsou stále těsněji spjaty, padá na ně stín nové války na jiném kontinentu a hrozí, že je opět odnese pryč. Dozvuky jsou na jednu stranu románem zasazeným do specifického myšlenkového i kulturního prostředí, zároveň reflektují univerzální lidské zkušenosti, které jsou nositeli vysokého potenciálu k překlenutí kulturních bariér. Nakladatelská anotace. Kráceno.

Průlomové dílo nositele Nobelovy ceny za literaturu se zaměřuje na klíčové otázky spojené s kolonialismem a zároveň nabízí neobyčejný pohled na život a zrání chlapce Júsufa na počátku 20. století v Tanzanii, kam postupně začíná pronikat evropská moc. Román odkrývá na jedné straně tamní drsný svět, jeho složité mocenské a ekonomické vztahy i neúprosnou každodenní realitu obyčejných, nemajetných lidí, na druhé straně je také úchvatným obrazem divoké, exotické krajiny, jejích obyvatel, historie a kultury. Název románu nikoli náhodou odkazuje k náboženské tematice a motivům, které v díle silně rezonují a dodávají mu nadčasový rozměr. Hlavní postava Júsuf je ve dvanácti letech prodán svým otcem jako splátka dluhu bohatému arabskému obchodníku Azízovi. Z prostého života na venkově je vržen do složitého městského prostředí východní Afriky – tavícího kotle různých ras, národností a jazyků. Sledujeme jeho účast na obchodní výpravě do vnitrozemí, která je nucena čelit nepřátelství místních kmenů, divoké zvěři a obtížnému terénu.Spolu s Júsufem nás autor provádí jedinečnou, a přesto i obecně lidskou zkušeností, jejíž milníky v podobě bezstarostného dětství, složitého dospívání, nečekaného přátelství, lásky i krutého vystřízlivění budou aktuální v každé době, kultuře a společnosti.

[A] captivating storyteller, with a voice both lyrical and mordant, and an oeuvre haunted by memory and loss. His intricate novels of arrival and departure . reveal, with flashes of acerbic humour, the lingering ties that bind continents, and how competing versions of history collide Guardian

'One of the world's most prominent postcolonial writers ... He has consistently and with great compassion penetrated the effects of colonialism and its effects on the lives of uprooted and migrating individuals' Anders Olsson, chairman of the Nobel Committee Delivered in London on 7 December 2021, 'Writing' is the lecture of the Nobel Laureate in Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah. Collected here with three further essays, it explores his coming-of-age, his early experiences in 1960s Britain, the narratives of oceans, his lifelong love affair with reading, and the power of writing to subvert the stories that have been handed to us. Generous, funny and wise, this collection is the perfect introduction to the storyteller described as 'one of Africa's most important living writers'; whose work, now spanning four decades, continues to spin wonder and magic while offering penetrating insight into exile, migration and homecoming. 'In book after book, he guides us through seismic historic moments and devastating societal ruptures while gently outlining what it is that keeps those families, friendships and loving spaces intact' Maaza Mengiste 'A wondrous writer' Philippe Sands

A masterwork by the 2021 Nobel Prize winner in Literature, in which the consequences of an illicit love affair reverberate from the heyday of the British empire to the aftermath of African independence Early one morning in 1899, an Englishman named Martin Pearce stumbles out of the desert into an East African coastal town and collapses at the feet of Hassanali, a local shopkeeper. When Hassanali’s sister, the beautiful and disillusioned Rehana, nurses Pearce back to health, a love affair sparks, with consequences that will ripple decades into the future, when another clandestine affair bursts into flame, with equally unforeseen and dramatic consequences. In this devastating and ingeniously spun tale, the Nobelist Abdulrazak Gurnah brilliantly dramatizes the personal and political legacies of colonialism.

A searing tale of a young woman discovering her troubled family history and cultural past Dottie Badoura Fatma Balfour finds solace amidst the squalor of her childhood by spinning warm tales of affection about her beautiful names. But she knows nothing of their origins, and little of her family history - or the abuse her ancestors suffered as they made their home in Britain. At seventeen, she takes on the burden of responsibility for her brother and sister and is obsessed with keeping the family together. However, as Sophie, lumpen yet voluptuous, drifts away, and the confused Hudson is absorbed into the world of crime, Dottie is forced to consider her own needs. Building on her fragmented, tantalising memories, she begins to clear a path through life, gradually gathering the confidence to take risks, to forge friendships and to challenge the labels that have been forced upon her.

An extraordinary depiction of the life of an immigrant, as he struggles to come to terms with the horror of his past and the meaning of his pilgrimage to England

A powerful story of exile, migration, and betrayal, from the Booker Prize–shortlisted author of Paradise. Salim has always known that his father does not want him. Living with his parents and his adored Uncle Amir in a house full of secrets, he is a bookish child, a dreamer haunted by night terrors. It is the 1970s and Zanzibar is changing. Tourists arrive, the island's white sands obscuring the memory of recent conflict--the longed-for independence from British colonialism swiftly followed by bloody revolution. When his father moves out, retreating into disheveled introspection, Salim is confused and ashamed. His mother does not discuss the change, nor does she explain her absences with a strange man; silence is layered on silence. When glamorous Uncle Amir, now a senior diplomat, offers Salim an escape, the lonely teenager travels to London for college. But nothing has prepared him for the biting cold and seething crowds of this hostile city. Struggling to find a foothold, and to understand the darkness at the heart of his family, he must face devastating truths about those closest to him--and about love, sex, and power. Evoking the immigrant experience with unsentimental precision and profound understanding, Gravel Heart is a powerfully affecting story of isolation, identity, belonging, and betrayal, and Abdulrazak Gurnah's most astonishing achievement.

On a late November afternoon Saleh Omar arrives at Gatwick Airport from Zanzibar, a far away island in the Indian Ocean. With him he has a small bag in which there lies his most precious possession - a mahogany box containing incense. He used to own a furniture shop, have a house and be a husband and father. Now he is an asylum seeker from paradise; silence his only protection. Meanwhile Latif Mahmud, someone intimately connected with Saleh's past, lives quietly alone in his London flat. When Saleh and Latif meet in an English seaside town, a story is unravelled. It is a story of love and betrayal, of seduction and of possession, and of a people desperately trying to find stability amidst the maelstrom of their times.

A man returns to his native Zanzibar after years of exile in England, and must come to terms with the changes both in him and in his childhood home.