Abdulrazak Gurnah
Description
In the late afternoon of 23rd November Saleh Omar arrives at Gatwick Airport with a small bag in which there lies a mahogany box containing incense -
...
and little else. He used to be a furniture-shop owner, house owner, husband and father. Now he is an asylum seeker from paradise, claiming silence as his only protection. Meanwhile, Latif Mahmud, poet, professor and voluntary refugee, lives quietly alone in his London flat, bitter about the country he has fled.
The paradise these men have left is Zanzibar, a spice-filled island in the Indian Ocean swept by the winds of the Musim.
When Saleh and Latif meet in a small English seaside town, there begins the unravelling of a story begun long ago - a story of seduction, deception and above all of possession. By the Sea is a stunning and elegiac look at a world where imperialism has opened up boundaries only to close off borders. Powerful and profound, it reveals an author at the height of his powers.
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