ABSTRACT
From the yarns of identity, sexuality, religion, migration and racism, novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah beautifully spins dark worlds that are as inspiring as they are unsettling. From the coast of East Africa to Britain, Gurnah's fictional worlds resonate with a plurality and fluidity characteristic of black British culture. Memory of Departure (1987) tells of a young
boy's ambition to leave home. Home bespeaks tormenting memories of a brother's death by fire, moral debasement, corrupt leadership and general disillusionment. Departure becomes freedom into a different kind of bondage. Schisms abound - between African, Arab and Indian, and between the 'haves' the 'have-nots' - impeding true love, friendship and self-realisation. The outlet becomes a self-charted journey, away from traditional kinship ties. Set in Kent, Pilgrims Way (1988) focuses on a mixed-race relationship. Dottie (1990) addresses notions of history in migration: identity effacement; displacement; rejection, dejection and decay; and their transposition onto younger generations. Paradise (1994), shortlisted for the 1994 Booker Prize and Whitbread Prize, lays bare power machinations by exploring meanings of family, honour, loyalty and servitude, while Admiring Silence (1996) plots a Zanzibar-London-Zanzibar journey, exposing the paradoxical meanings of 'home'. His latest novel, By the Sea (2001), tells the story of two men who leave Zanzibar and meet in an English seaside town. Gurnah was also editor of Heinemann's African Writers Series and has edited two collections of essays on African writing. He has worked as an academic throughout his writing career and is a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Kent.
