Memory of Departure

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What to expect

The debut novel by the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature

Vehement, comic and shrewd, Abdulrazak Gurnah’s first novel is an unwavering contemplation of East African coastal life

Poverty and depravity wreak havoc on Hassan Omar’s family. Amid great hardship he decides to escape.

The arrival of independence brings new upheavals as well as the betrayal of the promise of freedom. The new government, fearful of an exodus of its most able men, discourages young people from travelling abroad and refuses to release examination results. Deprived of a scholarship, Hassan travels to Nairobi to stay with a wealthy uncle, in the hope that he will release his mother’s rightful share of the family inheritance.

The collision of past secrets and future hopes, the compound of fear and frustration, beauty and brutality, create a fierce tale of undeniable power.
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‘Gurnah is a master storyteller' FINANCIAL TIMES

'Exile has given Gurnah a perspective on the “balance between things” that is astonishing, superb' OBSERVER

'A captivating storyteller' GUARDIAN

'Gurnah etches with biting incisiveness the experiences of immigrants exposed to contempt, hostility or patronising indifference on their arrival in Britain' SPECTATOR

Critics Review

  • [A] captivating storyteller, with a voice both lyrical and mordant, and an oeuvre haunted by memory and loss. His intricate novels of arrival and departure … reveal, with flashes of acerbic humour, the lingering ties that bind continents, and how competing versions of history collide

    Guardian

  • Gurnah is a master storyteller

    Financial Times

  • Gurnah writes with wonderful insight about family relationships and he folds in the layers of history with elegance and warmth

    The Times

  • Exile has given Gurnah a perspective on the “balance between things” that is astonishing, superb

    Observer

  • Gurnah etches with biting incisiveness the experiences of immigrants exposed to contempt, hostility or patronising indifference on their arrival in Britain

    Spectator

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