WULOLIFE
The Last Gift Author: [British] Abdulrazak Gelner Publisher: Shanghai Translation Publishing House Original title: The Last Gift
The Last Gift Author: [British] Abdulrazak Gelner Publisher: Shanghai Translation Publishing House Original title: The Last Gift
Couldn't load pickup availability
Description
Introduction · · · · · ·
The Last Gift is a work by Abdulrazaq Gulna, the 2021 Nobel Prize winner in Literature, published in 2011. It is also a sister work of his other novel In Praise of Silence. The story tells that the protagonist Abbas abandoned his wife and children at the age of 19 due to inferiority and suspicion, fled his hometown of Zanzibar, became a sailor, shuttled between major ports around the world, and lived a nomadic life. It was not until 15 years later that he fell in love at first sight with Mariam, a black mixed-race girl who was abandoned at birth in Exeter, England. The two decided to settle in Norwich and start an ordinary life with children.
However, life was not a happy one. The lowly status of a British immigrant was always like a nightmare to the whole family. Abbas kept silent about everything in Zanzibar, which made his two children feel like rootless duckweed, and lost themselves in the issue of identity. Abbas suffered a stroke at the age of 63, and he was bedridden until his death. During these last years, the distant homeland that he had spent most of his life trying to forget became clearer and clearer in his mind, haunting him. With the encouragement of his wife, he finally told his complete life story slowly to a tape recorder, leaving his children the last gift of his life.
About the Author · · · · · ·
Abdulrazaq Gulner, a British writer of Tanzanian descent, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021 for "his influence on colonial literature and his uncompromising and compassionate insight into the plight of refugees caught between different cultures." Gulner was born in Zanzibar Island on the coast of East Africa in 1948. He moved to the UK in the 1960s to study, and eventually received a doctorate from the University of Kent, where he has taught ever since. His main academic interests are postcolonial writing and discourses related to colonialism, especially those related to Africa, the Caribbean, and India. He served as a judge for the Caine Prize for African Literature and the Booker Prize, and was elected to the Royal Society of Literature in 2006. Gulner's works revolve around the theme of refugees, mainly describing the living conditions of colonial peoples, focusing on identity, racial conflict, and historical writing. The living conditions of the postcolonial era he presents are considered to have important social and realistic significance. His representative works include "Paradise", "By the Sea", and "Afterlife".
![The Last Gift Author: [British] Abdulrazak Gelner Publisher: Shanghai Translation Publishing House Original title: The Last Gift](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)