Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah: Why It's One of Our November Picks

Every month we choose three books we would happily press into a friend’s hands, and this November one of them is Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah. It is a rich, beautifully written coming-of-age story set in East Africa at the start of the twentieth century, and we are proud to share it with our readers across Hong Kong, Singapore, Manila, Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

What is Paradise about?

The novel follows Yusuf, a young boy growing up in a small town in what is now Tanzania. His father runs a hotel and has fallen into debt with Aziz, a wealthy merchant whom Yusuf has been taught to call “Uncle”. To settle that debt, Yusuf is sent away to live and work for Aziz without pay, and his childhood changes almost overnight.

At first Yusuf works in Aziz’s shop, where he makes friends, watches the adults around him closely and slowly begins to understand how their world really works. Later he joins one of Aziz’s trading caravans as it travels deep into the interior, through difficult country. We will stop there, because watching the world open up through Yusuf’s eyes, and grow more complicated as it does, is the heart of the book.

Why we chose it

We chose Paradise because it is one of those rare novels that is both a gripping story and a window into a time and place that many of us know very little about. Gurnah shows us the old trading world of East Africa just as European colonial powers are tightening their grip on the region. He writes with great tenderness about a boy trying to work out who he is and where he belongs, and his prose is lush and vivid, full of gardens, markets and long journeys.

We also think it will feel close to home for many of our readers in Asia. For centuries the East African coast was connected by trade to Arabia, India and the wider Indian Ocean, and the mix of cultures, faiths and languages in the novel will feel familiar to anyone who has grown up in a port city.

Paradise was first published in 1994 and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize that year. Gurnah went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021, and we think this novel is a wonderful place to begin with his work.

Who will love this book?

• Readers who enjoy literary coming-of-age stories with a strong sense of place.
• Anyone curious about East African history and the old Indian Ocean trading world.
• Readers who would like an approachable way into the work of a Nobel Prize winner.
• Book clubs looking for a novel with plenty to talk about, from family and freedom to faith and belonging.

A gentle note: Paradise deals with some difficult themes, including debt and servitude, the violence of the colonial period and an unwanted sexual advance. Gurnah handles all of this with restraint and care, but we would like you to know before you choose it.

About the author

Abdulrazak Gurnah was born in 1948 on the island of Zanzibar, which is now part of Tanzania. He came to England in 1968 as a refugee, following the Zanzibar Revolution, and although Swahili is his first language, he writes in English. He studied in Canterbury and earned his PhD at the University of Kent, and later spent many years as a professor of English and postcolonial literature at Kent until his retirement. He has written eleven novels, including By the Sea, Desertion, Afterlives and Theft. In 2021 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”.

Make some time for it

Paradise is a book that rewards slow and attentive reading. The story stays with you long after you close it. We suggest setting aside a quiet half hour each evening, leaving your phone in another room and letting Yusuf’s journey carry you somewhere far away. That small, unhurried ritual is exactly what we hope every Wenovelists box brings into your month.

Would you like Paradise in your next box? It is one of our three November picks. You can choose it when you subscribe, or send it as a gift to someone who loves a beautifully written story that takes them somewhere new. If you are already a subscriber, simply reply to our November email with your choice.