Lagatar24 desk
Stockholm, Oct.7: The Nobel Prize 2021 in Literature has been awarded to Tanzanian-born novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah for “his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.”
BREAKING NEWS:
The 2021 #NobelPrize in Literature is awarded to the novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.” pic.twitter.com/zw2LBQSJ4j— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 7, 2021
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the more than century-old prize, which is worth 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.14 million).
The academy in a statement said,“ Nobel Prize laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah’s dedication to truth and his aversion to simplification are striking. His novels recoil from stereotypical descriptions and open our gaze to a culturally diversified East Africa unfamiliar to many in other parts of the world.”
Abdulrazak Gurnah was born in 1948 on the island of Zanzibar and grew up there before fleeing to England as a refugee in the late 1960s. He was Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent, Canterbury, until his recent retirement.
He has written ten books and a collection of short stories. Throughout his work, the idea of the refugee’s disturbance recurs. Even though Swahili was his first language, English became his literary weapon when he was 21 years old and living in exile in England.
News of the Paradise author’s win delighted fellow authors, publishers and readers alike. Many took to social media to express joy. Publisher Chiki Sarkar wrote, How extraordinary! I worked with him as a young editor – and @AlexandraPring has championed and believed in him like no one else. Thrilled by this news. So proud.”
