In 2021, Abdulrazak Gurnah was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. In Theft, his first novel since he won the award, a teenage servant in Dar es Salaam is accused of stealing, but finds a way forward in the company of two other young people on uncertain paths.
‘Maps’ by Nuruddin Farah (1986)
This is Nuruddin Farah’s most powerful novel. As with all of his fiction, it is set in his homeland of Somalia. Maps is an absorbing account of an orphaned boy growing up among women during the Ogaden War between Somalia and Ethiopia. It is a poetic and superbly organized work. Buy it here.
‘The English Patient’ by Michael Ondaatje (1992)
The English Patient is a novel of many achievements. Its location is a ruined monastery turned abandoned military hospital in Italy toward the end of World War II. It has one solitary patient who is seriously burned and too fragile to move. The novel’s imaginary landscape is vast, and includes espionage, wartime Cairo, desert exploration, and a devastating love affair. Buy it here.
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