The Last Gift

By: Abdulrazak Gurnah

Narrated by: Ali Zayn

Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Bloomsbury presents The Last Gift by Abdulrazak Gurnah, read by Ali Zayn.

From the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, an astounding meditation on family, self and the meaning of home.

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.

©2011 Abdulrazak Gurnah (P)2022 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Critic reviews

"Abdulrazak Gurnah is a captivating storyteller, with a voice both lyrical and mordant, and an oeuvre haunted by memory and loss." (The Guardian)

"Gurnah has some of the sharpness and clarity of VS Naipaul and more than a dash of Ben Okri's measured poetic diction." (New Statesman)

"As always with Gurnah's writing, you relish his juxtapositions of beauty and bitterness, political edge and personal pain, betrayal and resilience." (Michele Roberts, author of Ignorance)

Excellent writing

Gurney has a gift describing people and dialogues. This is well written and insightful. As an American who works a good deal in Africa and with UK folks it clearly explains the large challenges any immigrant faces going to a new culture and the cultural differences between peoples trying to mix in

Stay interesting

I found merit and truth in the telling of the story. I enjoyed the way it ended. The bit of redundance, and the dialogue added to the picture of the redundance of life for immigrants in many areas of the western world.

A Depressing Story About Nothing

Too many characters and too many story lines that end up going nowhere. It was a kaleidoscope of disconnected vignettes of immigrant experiences but the story did not build up to anything. A continuous vomit of isolated immigrant struggles. Overall the book was disappointing and slightly depressing.

Disappointed

Found it difficult to listen to. The writing and performance was too flat for my taste. The book was far too lengthy for what it had to say. If felt like a monotone going on and on with too little infection & expression. Not my cup of tea!