Riverhead to Publish 3 Novels by Nobel Literature Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah
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Abdulrazak Gurnah, author photo – Credit Mark Pringle
Riverhead Books has acquired United States rights to AFTERLIVES by Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gurnah is the author of nine previous novels, including Paradise (shortlisted for the Booker Prize), By the Sea (longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the LA Times Book Award), and Desertion (originally published by Pantheon and reprinted by Anchor). Born and raised in Zanzibar, he is Professor Emeritus of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent; he lives in Canterbury, England.
AFTERLIVES is a sweeping, multi-generational saga of displacement, loss, and love, as the fates of three people – a young man kidnapped into military service, another sold into it, and the sister he left behind – play out against the brutal colonization of East Africa. Riverhead will publish AFTERLIVES on August 23, 2022.
Riverhead VP & Editorial Director Rebecca Saletan said: “Mr. Gurnah brings to his writing an unparalleled combination of narrative magic and a deeply inhabited and often devastating portrayal of the colonial and post-colonial experience. We at Riverhead are honored and excited by the rare opportunity to bring this singularly important writer before the wide American audience he merits.”
Riverhead will also publish two major backlist titles by Gurnah, BY THE SEA and DESERTION.