Out Now! Paradise, by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah has become a literary superstar overnight. His dignified, humane, and unpretentious prose is best exemplified in Paradise, Gurnah’s 1994 novel, which is finally back in (very limited!) stock. Relating the story of Yusuf, a Tanzanian boy sold to a merchant in exchange for his father’s debts, Paradise is Gurnah at his most moving. A strange, violent, and pivotal book by an author whose reputation is only set to grow.

Order your copy today directly through October Books or buy online through our bookshop store and we’ll get a commission on your purchase.

Paradise by Abdulrazack Gurnah

Paperback £9.99

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.

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