Paradise

I am troubled by this book. I need more time to digest it. But I’ll share my thoughts having just completed it. In a nutshell, I wanted to be more impressed than I was. And it would be unfair to Gurnah if I did not admit to being impressed nevertheless. Yusuf, the protagonist, is sold by his father at the age of 12. Leaving behind his family and rural village, he becomes an apprentice of sorts to Aziz, a wealthy, worldly merchant in precolonial urban East Africa. The story is at once no more than and much more than a coming-of-age story. It is Africa’s story as well, at least in part. All this said, I found the end baffling for a number of reasons. I am not giving anything away by saying that it seems to me a bit forced; that what show more happens doesn’t quite mesh with what preceded it. The large pieces of the novel are all fascinating and all well done; I don’t think that they are woven seamlessly. For example, the story of Aziz’s wife felt “tacked on.” While well done, it didn’t work as part of and successor to all that preceded it. A troubling novel but one which has convinced me to read more of Gurnah. show less

This is a seemingly simple Bildungsroman, set in east Africa in the years before the First World War—but beneath the coming of age story of Yusuf, a slave sold by his father to settle a debt, lies a complex exploration of slavery, religion, cultural interactions, colonialism, innocence and honour. Gurnah has an immense gift for using understated language to call up vivid imagery—there's no overblown description here, no moralising, and the reader nonetheless gets a strong sense of the region which would later become Tanzania at the turn of the twentieth century. A fascinating book, which dovetails very nicely with the nonfiction reading in African history which I've been doing this semester.

Met dit boek reisde ik terug naar het begin van de 20e eeuw, naar wat nu Tanzania is. Er marcheerden af en toe wat Duitse soldaten voorbij die het land koloniseerden, maar dat was meer op de achtergrond. Het boek vertelt het verhaal van een jongen die als onderpand voor een lening wordt meegegeven aan een koopman. Formeel is de slavernij afgeschaft, maar feitelijk leeft deze jongen als slaaf. Hoewel hij niet wordt afgebeuld, en zelfs met de koopman mee mag op een handelsmissie naar het binnenland, heeft hij niet de vrijheid zijn eigen beslissingen te nemen en is hij compleet afhankelijk van de koopman. Veel in dit boek is impliciet, gebeurt in dromen en verhalen die worden verteld in de nacht. Het is best een beklemmend boek, maar het show more wist mij wel te betoveren vooral ook door de beschrijvingen van die niet meer bestaande wereld. show less

Intriguing story told from the point of view of Yusuf, a boy pawned into bondage with a Muslim trader, who later accompanies his new master on a caravan into the interior of East Africa. It is a harrowing journey, a parallel to Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but one that subverts the Western perception throughout. The trader is a manipulator, but ultimately small fry compared to the Germans and British vying for control on the region on the cusp of WWI. The colonial geo-politics provides the backdrop of a world in flux, while the story centres on how Yusuf, Khalil and Amina are all trapped with no escape in a web spun by the trader.

48. Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah
published: 1994
format: 247-page paperback
acquired: 2019 – sent from an LT friend
read: Oct 8-16
time reading: 8:12, 2.0 mpp
rating: 5
locations: circa 1910 Tanzania
about the author: born 1948 in the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Fled to England after the Zanzibar Revolution in 1968. Now a retired professor of English and postcolonial literature at the University of Kent.

This is simply wonderful, but of course not in a way I can capture. Gurnah takes us into the world of caravan trading in what is now Tanzania in southeast Africa, and what was then a cultural mélange, a world of merchants from different parts of Africa, Arabia and India, along with the leftovers around that trade, under German colonial rule. No show more dates, but there is an automobile, and a war coming; and the traditional ways, along with all their tragedy and risk and romanticism, are coming to an end.

Yusuf (whose significantly biblical name took me about 90% of the book to figure out, because of the spelling) finds himself taken from his parents by a rich uncle, and dumped in a shop, and then later on and off a caravan right out of something Marco Polo might have experienced, but here westward into the very distant heart of Africa. The civilized Islamic traders dealing with isolated pagan Africa tribes. Except this isn't the 1300's. This is a colonial ruled territory in the 20th century. Yusuf grows up, and encounters various characters, and their large personalities, and expounding on their philosophies and playing their tricks and trying to manage the traditions and changes.

My first time reading the new Nobel Prize winner. An LT friend sent this my way in April of 2019, after posting to me in her Club Read thread, "If one is going to try to hook someone on an author, one must do it properly!" It took me over two years and that prize to finally open it up and see what she meant. I'm anxious to read more by Gurnah.

2021
https://www.librarything.com/topic/333774#7630031 show less

A story of exile, Abdulrazak Gurnah’s fourth novel Paradise tells the story of Yusuf who was born in Tanzania at the turn of the 20th century. His family is poor, and it’s a treat when Yusuf finds a bone in his soup, but the family manages to put on a feast for the regular visits of Uncle Azia. Yusuf — already showing signs of strategic thinking which will serve him in good stead — always arranges his activities to coincide with Uncle Aziz’s departure and his gift of 10 annas (a unit of currency in parts of colonial Africa).
Aziz, however, is no genial uncle. He isn’t an uncle at all. He is a merchant made wealthy by shady deals and a usurer who preys on people like Yusuf’s family, by lending money at exorbitant rates to show more people who have no prospect of repaying it. Yusuf’s childhood is abruptly terminated when he is sold to ‘Uncle’ Aziz in payment of his father’s debts, and he never sees his family again. As he makes his way across Africa as an unpaid servant for Aziz’s trading caravans, he encounters the advent of German colonialism and the way it ruptures traditional ownership and traditions.
It’s a hyper-masculine world that Yusuf enters at twelve with an often brutal apprenticeship with an older boy, Khalil. The boys are mostly left to their own devices as long as the shop is profitable, and Khalil is supposed to teach him the tricks of the trade, but he also introduces him to the crude culture of the trading station. His method of instruction is mostly with a sharp slap to the head to remind Yusuf not to be ‘stupid’ and he enjoys telling Yusuf frightening stories to keep him in line.

The reader’s sympathies are not with Khalil for most of the novel because we don’t learn until quite late that he is also a bonded servant who theoretically could one day be redeemed by his family, but it’s not likely ever to happen, even if they knew where he was. He has an adopted sister too, whose fate was not uncommon in those days.

(One of the aspects of Gurnah’s fiction that I like is that he doesn’t romanticise pre-colonial societies.)

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2025/08/29/paradise-1994-by-abdulrazak-gurnah/ show less

Gurnah won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021, and this brought his work to my attention. I then found out that he is well-respected by several LTers and knew I had to give his books a try. [Paradise] is about a young man, Yusuf, who is sold to a merchant, his "Uncle" Aziz, to pay his father's debts. He moves from rural Africa to a city on the East Coast to help run Aziz's shop. There he meets Khalil, who becomes an older brother figure to him. They run the shop and explore the city. Then Yusuf is taken with Uncle Aziz on a purchasing trip where he meets even more colorful people and has some funny and some dangerous experiences. To the reader, this trip reveals the multi-cultural experience in Africa at the turn of the 20th show more century. There are tribes that speak Swahili and have a traditional African culture; there are groups that are devout Muslim; groups that are heavily Arabic; and the newly arrived Germans. And of course among these there is plenty of mingling - they aren't all exclusive. It truly feels like a sometimes dangerous melting pot of interests and priorities.

I enjoyed this novel for the most part. I liked the relationship between Yusuf and Khalil. And the mix of culture was fascinating. But it was such a foreign culture to me that I was confused and lost the trail of the plot a few times. This happens to me sometimes when I don't have a lot of cultural/historical background with a novel. I always appreciate learning about the culture, but sometimes don't quite enjoy the book as much because of the work I have to do to stay on track (this happens a lot with the Japanese literature I've read also).

I would like to read more by Gurnah and will keep him on my list of authors to keep on my TBR pile. show less