Desertion

Abdulrazak Gurnah · 2005 CE · Novel · East African · Contemporary

In 1899 a shopkeeper near Mombasa takes in an Englishman who has collapsed in the desert, and the Englishman falls for the shopkeeper's sister. The novel then moves to 1950s Zanzibar on the eve of independence, where that affair shadows a younger generation's love. It was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and belongs to the body of work for which Gurnah received the Nobel Prize.

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