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Gravel Heart: By the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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About this ebook
By the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature
'The elegance and control of Gurnah's writing, and his understanding of how quietly and slowly and repeatedly a heart can break, make this a deeply rewarding novel' Kamila Shamsie, Guardian
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For seven-year-old Salim, the pillars upholding his small universe – his indifferent father, his adored uncle, his treasured books, the daily routines of government school and Koran lessons – seem unshakeable.
But it is the 1970s, and the winds of change are blowing through Zanzibar: suddenly Salim's father is gone, and the island convulses with violence and corruption the wake of a revolution. It will only be years later, making his way through an alien and hostile London, that Salim will begin to understand the shame and exploitation festering at the heart of his family's history.
________________________
'Riveting … The measured elegance of Gurnah's prose renders his protagonist in a manner almost uncannily real' New York Times
'Glittering ... Each work is different from the last, yet they build into a powerfully evocative oeuvre that keeps coming back to the same questions, in spare, graceful prose, about the ties that bind and the ties that fray' Telegraph
'A colourful tale of life in a Zanzibar village, where passions and politics reshape a family… Powerful' Mail on Sunday
'The elegance and control of Gurnah's writing, and his understanding of how quietly and slowly and repeatedly a heart can break, make this a deeply rewarding novel' Kamila Shamsie, Guardian
________________________
For seven-year-old Salim, the pillars upholding his small universe – his indifferent father, his adored uncle, his treasured books, the daily routines of government school and Koran lessons – seem unshakeable.
But it is the 1970s, and the winds of change are blowing through Zanzibar: suddenly Salim's father is gone, and the island convulses with violence and corruption the wake of a revolution. It will only be years later, making his way through an alien and hostile London, that Salim will begin to understand the shame and exploitation festering at the heart of his family's history.
________________________
'Riveting … The measured elegance of Gurnah's prose renders his protagonist in a manner almost uncannily real' New York Times
'Glittering ... Each work is different from the last, yet they build into a powerfully evocative oeuvre that keeps coming back to the same questions, in spare, graceful prose, about the ties that bind and the ties that fray' Telegraph
'A colourful tale of life in a Zanzibar village, where passions and politics reshape a family… Powerful' Mail on Sunday
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Author
Abdulrazak Gurnah
Abdulrazak Gurnah is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is the author of ten novels, including Paradise (The New Press), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award. He lives in Canterbury, England.
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Reviews for Gravel Heart
Rating: 3.8000000257142856 out of 5 stars
4/5
35 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a coming-of-age novel of a new sort, in which the pains and discoveries of growing up are complicated by the experiences of exile and immigrant life. The whole is drawn forward by the narrator's uncertainty about what destroyed his parent's marriage, and his father along with it. The characters are brilliantly drawn and we grow to know their complexities as the novel proceeds. The writing is beautiful. The sentiments are vivid, and often wise. Oddly enough I was reading "The Scramble for Africa" at the same time that I read this book. Amazing how events a century ago still dominate so many lives today.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The title is based on a Shakespearean quote from Measure for Measure Act IV, scene II: “Unfit to live or die: O gravel heart!”Salim has grown up in Tanzania, in a rather odd family situation. His mother and father are divorced, but for no reason that Salim can discern, each day his mother cooks for his father and sends Salim to take the food to him. Salim’s father is obviously a broken man.Salim’s mother has an ongoing affair, and subsequent marriage with a Tanzanian politico. She also has a brother, Amir, who lives with them and is also a bit of a mystery. Uncle Amir eventually emigrates to London to a political post and gradually climbs the diplomatic ladder. After Salim finishes school, Amir invites Salim to join him so Salim can attend college in London. But Salim fails the business classes his uncle insists he take to become useful to the family and his native land. Instead, when Salim chooses to study his beloved English literature, his uncle sets him adrift.So which identity can Salim choose? A family-less British immigrant, a student amidst expats and refugees from a variety of countries, a Tanzanian preparing to return to his home even though much of his family has fled to Zanzibar to escape political unrest?It’s not until years later that Salim reconnects with his father. At that point, his father tells him the secret family story, mired in the politics of a post-colonial nation that broke both the man and the family.I found this really engaging – a slightly different look at the prism of immigrants' stories, and a family mystery woven together neatly with the politics of a country I knew little about.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is the story of boy growing up and coming to terms with his family's story. It's also the story of his parents and how an act of love destroyed their marriage. It's about a young man, taken away from all he knows to study in a foreign country, living with relatives who expect constant gratitude, then building his own life. It's about a fraught relationship between a father and a son and how Salim comes to understand his father. Gurnah is a talented writer who builds a vivid picture of Zanzibar in the 1970s and of what life was like for an African in London. His writing is both clear and understated. There's a feeling of telling a tale and of grounding the story firmly in the world as it is. I'm very interested in reading more by this author.