An evening with Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
One of the world’s most prominent postcolonial writers
Join us for a very special evening with Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, as he discusses Theft, his extraordinary new novel. In conversation with Adam Biles.
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What are we given, and what do we have to take for ourselves?
It is the 1990s. Growing up in Zanzibar, three very different young people – Karim, Fauzia and Badar – are coming of age, and dreaming of great possibilities in their young nation. But for Badar, an uneducated servant boy who has never known his parents, it seems as if all doors are closed. Brought into a lowly position in a great house in Dar es Salaam, Badar finds the first true home of his life – and the friendship of Karim, the young man of the house. Even when a shattering false accusation sees Badar sent away, Karim and Fauzia refuse to turn away from their friend. But as the three of them take their first steps in love, infatuation, work and parenthood, their bond is tested – and Karim is tempted into a betrayal that will change all of their lives forever.
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Abdulrazak Gurnah is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021. He is the first
Black African author to be honoured by the committee in 35 years. Published in 44
languages, he is the author of ten novels: Memory of Departure, Pilgrims Way, Dottie,
Paradise (shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award), Admiring Silence,
By the Sea (longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times
Book Award), Desertion (shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize), The Last Gift,
Gravel Heart and Afterlives, which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Fiction 2021
and longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize. He was Professor of English at the University of
Kent, and was a Man Booker Prize judge in 2016. He lives in Canterbury.