How Nobel Prize-Winning Author Abdulrazak Gurnah Writes

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2021 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah, spoke to me about life after becoming a laureate, the difference between authors and writers, and his latest novel "Afterlives."

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2021 was awarded to Abdulrazak Gurnah "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents"

The Tanzanian-born British novelist and Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Kent, has written short stories, essays, and ten novels including Paradise (shortlisted for the Booker Prize), By the Sea (longlisted for the Booker Prize and a finalist for the LA Times Book Award), and Desertion.

His latest novel, Afterlives, has been described as "... a sweeping, multi-generational saga of displacement, loss, and love, set against the brutal colonization of east Africa"

The New York Times Book Review called the author, "... a master of the art form who understands human failings in conflicts both political and intimate — and how these shortcomings create afflictions from which nations and individuals continue to suffer, needlessly, generation after generation."

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In this file Abdulrazak Gurnah and I discussed:

• Finding global readers and acclaim two years after the UK release of his latest book
• The irony of becoming a Nobel laureate in literature
• Why he always writes the final episode first
• The intergenerational trauma of war and how he chooses his protagonists
• Why you may be in the wrong business
• And a lot more!

Show Notes:

• Afterlives: A Novel by Abdulrazak Gurnah
• The Nobel Prize in Literature 2021
• Abdulrazak Gurnah
• Kelton Reid on Twitter

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