The Last Gift: By the Winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature - Hardcover

Gurnah, Abdulrazak

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1620403285 ISBN 13: 9781620403280

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, 2014

Synopsis

One day, long before the troubles, he slipped away without saying a word to anyone and never went back. And then another day, forty-three years later, he collapsed just inside the front door of his house in a small English town. It was late in the day when it happened, on his way home after work, but it was also late in the day altogether. He had left things for too long and there was no one to blame for it but himself.

Abbas has never told anyone about his past-before he was a sailor on the high seas, before he met his wife Maryam outside a drugstore in Exeter, before they settled into a quiet life with their children, Jamal and Hanna. Now, at the age of sixty-three, he suffers a collapse that renders him unable to speak about things he thought he would one day have to.

Jamal and Hanna have grown up and gone out into the world. They were both born in England but cannot shake a sense of apartness. Hanna calls herself Anna now, and has just moved to a new city to be near her boyfriend. She feels the relationship is headed somewhere serious, but the words have not yet been spoken out loud. Jamal, the listener of the family, moves into a student house and is captivated by a young woman with dark blue eyes and her own complex story to tell. Abbas's illness forces both children home, to the dark silences of their father and the fretful capability of their mother, Maryam, who has never thought to find herself-until now.

About this title

About the Author:

Abdulrazak Gurnah was born in 1948 in Zanzibar and lives in England, where he teaches at the University of Kent. He is the author of seven novels, which include Paradise, shortlisted for both the Booker and the Whitbread Prizes; By the Sea, longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and Desertion, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize.

From Booklist:

Abbas has always lived a quiet life, believing that his own personal history was nobody’s business but his own. When a stroke nearly paralyzes him at 63, however, he suddenly becomes eager to share everything from the tiniest details of his childhood in Zanzibar to the sweeping tales of his travels around the world. Abbas’ wife, Maryam, decides to call their children, Jamal and Hannah, home to bear witness to their father’s tales and aid in his recovery. Maryam, Jamal, and Hannah, all somewhat preoccupied with their own lives and memories, absorb Abbas’ stories with a mixture of curiosity, disgust, and wonderment. Gurnah alternates Abbas’ recollections and stories from his wife and children, blending themes of reconciliation, identity, belonging, and alienation. Gurnah’s fluid, poetic prose contains striking turns of phrase that allow the reader to appreciate the beauty in even the most mundane memories. Fans of Half the Sky (2009) and The Kite Runner (2011) will appreciate the mixing of narratives in The Last Gift as the various perspectives blend to create a truly powerful novel. --Stephanie Turza

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1620403285
• ISBN 13: 9781620403280
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288