By the Sea - Hardcover

Gurnah, Abdulrazak

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1565846583 ISBN 13: 9781565846586

Publisher: The New Press, 2001

Synopsis

In the late afternoon of November 23rd, Saleh Omar arrives at Gatwick Airport with a small bag in which lies a mahogany box containing incense - and little else. He used to own a furniture shop, his own house, and be a husband and father. Now he is an asylum seeker from paradise, claiming silence as his only protection.
Meanwhile, Latif Mahmud, poet and professor, voluntary refugee, lives quietly, alone in his London flat, bitter about the country and family he has never revisited.
The paradise both these men have left is Zanzibar, an island in the Indian Ocean swept by the winds of the Musim, bringing traders with their perfumes and spices and a unique mix of cultures and histories. When Saleh and Latif meet in a small English seaside town, a story of long ago begins to unravel - a story of seduction and deception, of the haphazard displacement of people, a story of love and betrayal and above all of possession. And as the story unfolds, we see a country exploding into postcolonial independence, reeling in its attempt to find stability while its people are caught in the maelstrom of their times.

About this title

About the Author

Abdulrazak Gurnah teaches at the University of Kent in England.

Reviews

Dense, accomplished and sharply conceived, this novel by Anglo-African writer Gurnah (Paradise; Admiring Silence) tells the story of 65-year-old Saleh Omar, a merchant refugee from Zanzibar who applies for asylum in England. A present-day Sinbad, Omar is fleeing a land where the evil jinn are the larcenous rulers equipped with all the accoutrements of contemporary authoritarianism concentration camps, rifles, kangaroo courts, etc. Upon arrival at Gatwick Airport, Omar presents an invalid visa, made out to his distant cousin and most hated enemy, Rajab Shaaban Mahmud. Advised not to demonstrate that he knows English, he puts on a charade of incomprehension for his caseworker, Rachel Howard, until uncomfortable circumstances force him to speak. In the meantime, Rachel contacts the English expert on Kiswahili, Latif Mahmud, who just happens to be the real Rajab Shaaban's son. Inevitably, the two men get together in a little seaside English town. Latif long ago cut off all relations with his Zanzibar family, having taken refuge in England in the '60s and gone on to become an English professor and poet, and a rather lonely single man. Saleh, he learns, has been pursued vindictively by Rajab and his wife, Asha, the mistress of a powerful minister. Due to recriminations over an inherited property, Saleh was eventually dispossessed of his house, arrested and imprisoned in various camps. Getting out, he starts over, only to be threatened by Latif's brother, Hassan. Gurnah's novel is a painful, unapologetically literate probe into the tragedy of the postcolonial world, where refugees are always emerging, "stunned, into the light of yet another gathering shambles." (June) Forecast: Paradise was short-listed for the Booker Prize, which should draw some critical attention to Gurnah's latest, though sales will likely be strongest at university bookstores.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Refugees shrink from painful recollections and yet feel impelled to tell their tales. This paradox of the displaced and disenfranchised is Zanzibar-born, England-based Gurnah's grand subject, one he explores with exquisite delicacy, suspense, and wit. He maps the mesh of the personal and the political in his sixth novel, a mesmerizing minor-key duet for two Zanzibari men living in England--Saleh Omar, an elderly former furniture dealer and a recent arrival, and Latif Mahmud, a professor of literature. Distantly related, they share a complex and tragic past involving devious business deals, illicit seductions, a sojourn in East Germany, and a long imprisonment, events set in motion during the 1960s, when British rule ended in Zanzibar only to be replaced by a vicious socialist regime. Lapidary in construction yet unfailingly supple, Gurnah's nuanced inquiry into racism, imperialism, and the corrupting nature of power is simultaneously taut with repressed fury, redolent with bittersweet memories of a lost homeland, and vivified with a sea breeze of hope. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Zanzibar author Gurnah, whose novel Paradise was a finalist for the Booker Prize, here illustrates the destructiveness of pride and the divergence of memory and truth. When Saleh Omar arrives in England from Zanzibar as a refugee, he hopes that he can leave behind his old life, marred by prison, death, and ruin. Instead, he encounters Latif, whose family's feud with Saleh destroyed nearly everyone involved. The two men's stories unwind slowly and gracefully, bringing the reader into a darkened room with the two old foes as they call forth ghosts, only to discover that the truth is often harder to believe than lies. Gurnah treats his characters like old friends, accepting their faults to see the dignity beneath. His portrayal of everyday immigrant life and quiet Muslim piety makes this a gentle, enjoyable read. Recommended for public libraries. Ellen Flexman, Indianapolis-Marion Cty. P.L.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: The New Press
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1565846583
• ISBN 13: 9781565846586
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 245