Paradise : A BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime, by the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021

An African boy comes of age in an East Africa increasingly corrupted by colonialism and violence, in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s powerful historical fiction.“Gurnah masterfully interweaves Yusuf’s story with the larger historical forces transforming the continent, all in a lush, seductive language that revels in its powers of storytelling.” - Los Angeles TimesIt soon transpires that the ‘uncle’ young Yusuf is travelling with is in reality a powerful merchant, and he has been pawned to him to pay his father’s debts. Having been sold into slavery by his father, Yusuf is thrown into a multi-ethnic world of war and violence - and the trials of adolescence - in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s rich 20th-century odyssey.“An evocative portrait of Africa on the brink of change... A poignant meditation on the nature of freedom and the loss of innocence, for both a single sensitive boy and an entire continent.” - The New York Times Book ReviewAbdulrazak Gurnah is the author of nine novels. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in October 2021. He is an Emeritus Professor of English and Postcolonial Literature at the University of Kent and was a Booker Prize judge in 2016. His novels include 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 and Gravel Heart. By the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature A BBC RADIO 4 Book at Bedtime SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE _______________________ 'A poetic and vividly conjured book about Africa and the brooding power of the unknown' Independent on Sunday 'Gurnah evokes his world in poetic prose which is pure and lucid - a small paradise in itself ... The pleasures, sadnesses and losses in all the shining facets of this book are lingering and exquisite' Guardian 'An obliterated world is enthrallingly retrieved' Sunday Times _______________________ Born in East Africa, Yusuf has few qualms about the journey he is to make. It never occurs to him to ask why he is accompanying Uncle Aziz or why the trip has been organised so suddenly, and he does not think to ask when he will be returning. But the truth is that his 'uncle' is a rich and powerful merchant and Yusuf has been pawned to him to pay his father's debts. Paradise is a rich tapestry of myth, dreams and Biblical and Koranic tradition, the story of a young boy's coming of age against the backdrop of an Africa increasingly corrupted by colonialism and violence. By the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in LiteratureLONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE'One scarcely dares breathe while reading it for fear of breaking the enchantment'The Times'Gurnah is a master storyteller'Financial TimesOn 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 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, seduction and possession, and of a people desperately trying to find stability amidst the maelstrom of their times. "On a late November afternoon Saleh Omar arrives at Gatwick Airport from Zanzibar, an 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 trying to find stability amidst the maelstrom of their times."--Provided by publisher 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, but 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, betrayal, of seduction and of possession, and of a people desperately trying to find stability amidst the maelstrom of their times. Saleh Omar used to be a furniture-shop owner, house owner, husband and father. Now he is an asylum seeker. When he meets Latif, a voluntary refugee, in a small English seaside town, there begins an unravelling of a story begun long ago. Paradise is Abdulrazak Gurnah's fourth novel, a beautiful story of African life