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Abdulrazak Gurnah

Born

in Zanzibar, Tanzania, The United Republic of

December 20, 1948

Genre

Historical Fiction, Fiction

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Abdulrazak Gurnah was born in 1948 in Zanzibar and lives in England, where he teaches at the University of Kent. The most famous of his novels are Paradise, shortlisted for both the Booker and the Whitbread Prize; By the Sea, longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and Desertion, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021 "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents". ...more

Combine Editions
Abdulrazak Gurnah’s books

Average rating: 3.78 · 56,693 ratings · 6,604 reviews · 30 distinct works • Similar authors

	Afterlives 3.77 avg rating — 14,927 ratings — published 2020 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Paradise 3.59 avg rating — 14,751 ratings — published 1994 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	By the Sea 3.89 avg rating — 6,014 ratings — published 2001 — 67 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Theft 3.93 avg rating — 5,678 ratings — published 2025 — 30 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Gravel Heart 3.97 avg rating — 4,202 ratings — published 2017 — 26 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Desertion 3.91 avg rating — 2,735 ratings — published 2005 — 61 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Last Gift 3.77 avg rating — 2,793 ratings — published 2011 — 27 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Admiring Silence 3.96 avg rating — 1,739 ratings — published 1996 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Memory of Departure 3.70 avg rating — 1,198 ratings — published 1987 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dottie 3.94 avg rating — 387 ratings — published 1990 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Abdulrazak Gurnah…

Quotes by Abdulrazak Gurnah (?)

“I speak to maps. And sometimes they something back to me. This is not as strange as it sounds, nor is it an unheard of thing. Before maps, the world was limitless. It was maps that gave it shape and made it seem like territory, like something that could be possessed, not just laid waste and plundered. Maps made places on the edges of the imagination seem graspable and placable.”
― Abdulrazak Gurnah, By the Sea

tags: maps, travel, world

42 likes

“Respect yourself and others will come to respect you. That is true about all of us, but especially true about women. That is the meaning of honour.”
― Abdulrazak Gurnah, Paradise

tags: inspirational, wisdom

37 likes

“Sometimes I think it is my fate to live in the wreckage and confusion of crumbling houses.”
― Abdulrazak Gurnah, By the Sea

tags: by-the-sea, family, novel

18 likes

See all Abdulrazak Gurnah's quotes »

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5 votes, 0.8%

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5 votes, 0.8%

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2 votes, 0.3%

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2 votes, 0.3%

François Mauriac (1952)

2 votes, 0.3%

Boris Pasternak (1958)

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2 votes, 0.3%

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1 vote, 0.2%

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1 vote, 0.2%

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George Seferis (1963)

1 vote, 0.2%

Nelly Sachs (1966)

1 vote, 0.2%

Eyvind Johnson (1974)

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Vicente Aleixandre (1977)

1 vote, 0.2%

Elias Canetti (1981)

1 vote, 0.2%

Wole Soyinka (1986)

1 vote, 0.2%

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610 total votes

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