Paradise

By: Abdulrazak Gurnah

Narrated by: Ashley Zhangazha

Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

Bloomsbury presents Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah, read by Ashley Zhangazha.

By the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature

A BBC RADIO 4 Book at Bedtime

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize

Born in East Africa, Yusuf has few qualms about the journey he is to make. It never occurs to him to ask why he is accompanying Uncle Aziz or why the trip has been organised so suddenly, and he does not think to ask when he will be returning. But the truth is that his ‘uncle' is a rich and powerful merchant and Yusuf has been pawned to him to pay his father's debts.

Paradise is a rich tapestry of myth, dreams and Biblical and Koranic tradition, the story of a young boy's coming of age against the backdrop of an Africa increasingly corrupted by colonialism and violence.

©1994 Abdulrazak Gurnah (P)2022 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Critic reviews

"Many layered, violent, beautiful and strange...a poetic and vividly conjured book about Africa and the brooding power of the unknown." (Independent on Sunday)

"An aural archive of a lost Africa... Tangling travel adventures, social documentary, political indictment and a doomed love story... Paradise is alive with the unexpected. In it, an obliterated world is enthrallingly retrieved." (Sunday Times)

"Gurnah evokes his world in poetic prose which is pure and lucid—a small paradise in itself... The pleasures, sadnesses and losses in all the shining facets of this book are lingering and exquisite." (Guardian)

Paradise

Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah is the author’s 4th novel. It is a historical novel set around WWI in Eats Africa around the period of the German invasion - “scramble for Africa.”

The novel is mostly told through Yusuf who we’ll to learn in the later parts of the novel that his name is symbolic of the Joseph in The Quran or Joseph of the Bible because like Joseph he is sold out to a trader, he is said to have the ability to translate dreams, his words, singing voice & prayers are said to have healing powers and also he described as a very beautiful man.

Yusuf is sold to Uncle Aziz a trader as a repayment for his father’s debt. Uncle Aziz has Yusuf work in his shop as an ‘understudy’ to Khalil who was also given to the trader as a repayment for his father’s debt.

Under Uncle Aziz, Yusuf also gets to join him and other merchants on trade expeditions through which we get see the pre-colonial East Africa communities, their ways of trade, their beliefs, traditions and superstitions and the effect of the European invasion on the various communities they encountered along the way. The journeys are treacherous and demanding but very illuminating.

Through Yusuf we get to encounter a myriad of characters whether during his times at Uncle Aziz’s shop or during the trade excursions who arouse different perspectives and feelings.

Themes highlighted in the novel are colonialism, slave trade, poverty, cattle rustling, sexual inappropriateness, superstition, poverty, poaching, suppression and freedom.

I also found it laughable how the African communities gave so much power to the European’s by how they describe them- their spit being venomous or the fact that they could eat metal. It’s shows how much words can perpetuate fear.

If you are history buff then this one’s for you.