Anthologies
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| The Granta Book of the African Short Story | 2011 | Buy |
| Road Stories | 2012 | Buy |
Standalone Novels
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Memory of Departure | 1987 | Buy |
| Pilgrim’s Way | 1988 | Buy |
| Dottie | 1990 | Buy |
| Paradise | 1994 | Buy |
| Admiring Silence | 1996 | Buy |
| By the Sea | 2001 | Buy |
| Desertion | 2005 | Buy |
| The Last Gift | 2011 | Buy |
| Gravel Heart | 2017 | Buy |
| Afterlives | 2020 | Buy |
| Theft | 2025 | Buy |
Abdulrazak Gurnah was born in Zanzibar in 1948 and moved to England in the 1960s as a refugee. His novels draw heavily on the experience of displacement, exploring what it means to leave home, arrive somewhere unfamiliar, and try to build a new life while carrying memories of the old one. He published his first novel, Memory of Departure, in 1987 and has written steadily since, producing eleven novels over nearly four decades.
His fourth novel, Paradise (1994), was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and brought him wider recognition. Set in East Africa during World War I, the book follows a young man sold into servitude by his father. By the Sea (2001) and Desertion (2005) continued to explore themes of migration, identity, and the long aftermath of colonialism along the East African coast. Afterlives (2020) returned to the World War I era to tell stories of Africans conscripted into the German colonial army.
Gurnah’s work gained a much larger audience after he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021. Many of his earlier books were out of print at the time and were quickly reissued. His writing is quiet and precise, building emotional weight through accumulated detail rather than dramatic set pieces. He also edited two anthologies of African short fiction, and his most recent novel, Theft, is expected in 2025.