About
Abdulrazak Gurnah was born in 1948 on the island of Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania). He arrived in England as a refugee at age 18 and earned a PhD from the University of Kent, where he taught English and postcolonial literatures until his retirement in 2017. Author of ten novels, including Paradise (1994) and Afterlives (2020), he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021 for his examination of the effects of colonialism and the fate of refugees.
* 1948-01-01
Major works
- Memory of Departure (1987)novel
- Paradise (1994)novel
- By the Sea (2001)novel
- Desertion (2005)novel
- Afterlives (2020)novel
Key milestones
- 1987Publication of his first novel, Memory of Departure.
- 2021Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
- 2023Elected Honorary Fellow of the British Academy.
Themes
ColonialismExile and refugeesIdentityMemoryCultural displacement
Sources: nobelprize.org · thebritishacademy.ac.uk · kent.ac.uk
