The 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature goes to Abdulrazak Gurnah

October 7, 2021 4:33 AM

Abdulrazak Gurnah is a novelist from Zanzibar who lives in Brighton, England. He is best known for his novel Paradise, but has published several novels. Anders Olsson, chairman of the Swedish Academy's Nobel committee has written an essay about Gurnah, which has a good overview of his work. You can also read about him on the British Council's website, watch a long on-stage interview with him from 2013 at Writers Make Worlds, or read an essay about Gurnah as a post-colonial writer by Samir Jeraj.
posted by Kattullus (18 comments total)

And you can follow reactions and find more links on the Complete Review's Literary Saloon blog post about the Nobel Prize.
posted by Kattullus at 4:34 AM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

So it did go to someone Alex Shephard hadn't included in his list after all....
posted by chavenet at 4:48 AM on October 7, 2021 [10 favorites]

Thanks for the post! I'm not familiar with his work, but I saw this early enough to place a hold on By the Sea at my library before the rush.
posted by the primroses were over at 4:49 AM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

His editor, Alexandra Pringle, was just this week tweeting about how Gurnah doesn't get the attention he merits. Talk about getting your wish.
posted by Kattullus at 5:37 AM on October 7, 2021

Abdulrazak Gurnah comes across as very likeable and grounded in this short telephone interview with the Nobel Prize's website.

My favorite human moment is when his other telephone rings, he answers, tells the person on the other line to call him back in five minutes, and goes back to the interviewer and tells him it was the BBC, absolutely matter of factly.
posted by Kattullus at 6:11 AM on October 7, 2021

Paradise has a 3.5 star rating on Goodreads, lol. FWIW Admiring Silence is his book with the highest score and most reviews. But then it's about being in England, so I imagine some cultural bias is at play.
posted by Nelson at 8:16 AM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

To quote Sam Goldwyn's apocryphal remark, "If you have a message, call Western Union." Nice for the author, but really? He seems like a strong second-tier writer, but difficult to believe that he ranks with Ishiguro, Vargas Llosa, Lessing, Naipaul or Pinter, to name a few from this century's laureates. His takes on colonialism and the immigrant experience may have swayed the jurors, but, Christ, give a posthumous Nobel to Clarice Lispector instead.
posted by the sobsister at 8:33 AM on October 7, 2021

BBC World Service's Newshour has a wonderful interview with him, and a good interview with an expert in his work, at the beginning of this broadcast.
posted by Kattullus at 8:37 AM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

the sobsister, have you read his work?
posted by trig at 11:02 AM on October 7, 2021 [4 favorites]

Zanzibar: Love and Exile is an interesting article from 2006 about Gurnah by Darryl Pinckney
posted by chavenet at 2:50 PM on October 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

I think the Nobel Prize Committee checks Shephard's list to see who to exclude.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 4:10 PM on October 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

Thanks for posting this. Fortunately for me, several of Gurnah's books are on Scribd right now.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 4:26 PM on October 7, 2021

I do feel/believe that there is a fallacy error in the Nobel prizes offerings. We all learn that the medicine, physics, chemistry and economic sciences. winners are often split between several persons that have dedicated their work and life to similar efforts, consequently the monetary prize has to be divided between several honored for that year. Those peoples to reach the level to obtain the recognizing, spent years studying , researching and working on those subjects. However the prize in Literature is giving to a sole individual each year. I don't want to diminish the value of those writers but they don't have or require the level of knowledge that the other scientists reach in their work, but of course they are unique. I believe that the Literature prize should be divided every year between two or more persons. Certainly there are more each year that deserve that recognizing.
posted by CRESTA at 5:19 PM on October 7, 2021

From Reuters: Compassion not barbed wire should greet migrants, Nobel winner Gurnah says by Guy Faulconbridge and Natalie Thomas. Excerpt:

Gurnah expressed amazement at the resolution and courage of those who travelled so far to escape their own countries for a new life.

"This somehow is constructed as if it is immoral - you know they use this phrase 'economic migrant' - as if to be an economic migrant is some kind of crime. Why not?"

"Millions of Europeans over centuries left their homes for precisely that reason and invaded the world for precisely for that reason," he said.

The other side of the equation, he said, was why people felt they had to embark on such perilous voyages for a new life.

"You have to ask the question: what is so horrible about where they are that they will do such things, that they will take such risks?" he said.

Europe, he said, should rethink its approach to migration.

"With greater compassion rather than with barbed wire - rather than a kind of discourse that Europe is going to be destroyed," he said.

posted by Kattullus at 5:38 PM on October 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

I was very happy to managed to track down a copy of Afterlives from a local bookstore. At least here in Iceland, there aren’t many copies left of Gurnah’s books.
posted by Kattullus at 10:21 AM on October 8, 2021

Alex Shephard follow-up: Why Did Abdulrazak Gurnah Win the Nobel Prize in Literature?
posted by chavenet at 7:14 AM on October 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

103 African Writers Respond to Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Nobel Prize Win

posted by Wobbuffet at 8:46 AM on October 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

It probably says something about Abdulrazak Gurnah’s status before he received the Nobel Prize that his publisher in England misspelled his name on the spine of Afterlives.
posted by Kattullus at 5:56 AM on October 25, 2021