Memory of departure

In concise yet lively prose filled with details, this moving novel depicts the strange and distinctive scenes, sounds, and landscapes of a coastal city in East Africa, and the spiritual birth of a sensitive boy at the age of fifteen who belongs to a family plagued by poverty, vice, and corruption. He is surrounded by a continuous cycle of violence and despair. Amidst this hardship, the young boy Hassan Omar resolves to escape. The collision of past secrets with future hopes, the mixture of fear and frustration, beauty and brutality, all create a harsh and bitter story rooted in undeniable creative abilities. The turning point in Hassan Omar's life ultimately symbolizes a larger issue; his ambitions and dilemmas reflect the Third World's struggle in Africa to rid itself of its colonial past, and the long-lasting poverty, deprivation, and repression, as well as the effort to establish a new identity. Abdul Razak Gurnah, born in Zanzibar (1948). A Tanzanian novelist and academic of Yemeni origin, residing in the United Kingdom and holding British citizenship. Gurnah works as a professor and director of graduate studies at the University of Kent in the Department of English. He has ten novels, numerous short stories, and articles. His works have been nominated for several awards such as the Booker and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. In October 2021, Gurnah was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.