Afterlives
by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Buy on Amazon"Erudite, ambitious Ilyas was stolen from his parents by the schutztruppe askari, the Germans' colonial troops; after years at war, he returns to his village to find his parents gone, and his sister Afiya given away. Hamza was not stolen, but was sold; he has come of age in the schutztruppe, at the right hand of an officer whose zeal and control have ensured his protection but marked him for life. He does not have words for how the war ended for him, in a haze of blood. Returning to the village of his childhood, all Hamza wants is work, however humble, and security - and the beautiful Afiya. The century is young, and the blaze of empire burns hot on the east coast of Africa.…
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"Not quite. While I still have your attention, I also want to flag up a new book from Abdulrazak Gurnah —who won the 2021 Nobel Prize for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism.” His latest novel, Afterlives , is set in what is now Tanzania (then Tanganyika) during the period of German rule around the turn of the 20th century, following a large cast of characters facing oppression of various kinds during the run-up to the First World War. As Maaza Mengiste has written , “Gurnah is known for decentring European history: a structural decision that is also politically potent.” In Afterlives , Gurnah considers the intergenerational consequences of violence, and asks us to consider colonialism from the African perspective. Part of our best books of 2022 series. What books are you most looking forward to this summer? Let us know. Send us a tweet , or post on our Facebook page ."
The Notable Novels of Summer 2022 · fivebooks.com