Paradise

Synopsis

When twelve-year-old Yusuf is handed over by his father to repay an unpaid debt, he is torn from his rural home and thrust into the complex world of pre-colonial East Africa. Serving a wealthy merchant, Yusuf travels across a landscape of bustling towns, trading caravans, and vast wilderness, encountering cultures, religions, and communities shaped by both long-standing traditions and the growing influence of European imperialism. As he comes of age, he must navigate loyalty, desire, injustice, and the uncertain path toward adulthood.

Richly imagined and deeply humane, Paradise is a sweeping coming-of-age novel that explores innocence, freedom, colonialism, and the loss of an older world. With lyrical prose and profound historical insight, Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah paints an unforgettable portrait of East Africa on the eve of colonial transformation.

About the Author

Abdulrazak Gurnah is a Tanzanian-born British novelist and recipient of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature. His acclaimed body of work explores colonialism, displacement, migration, and identity, with novels including By the Sea, Desertion, Afterlives, and Paradise. First published in 1994, Paradise was shortlisted for both the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award and is widely regarded as Gurnah's breakthrough masterpiece.

Publisher
The New Press

Publication Date
October 1, 1995

Format
Paperback

Pages
256

Subjects
Literary Fiction · Historical Fiction · African Literature · Coming-of-Age

ISBN
9781565841635