Abdulrazak Gurnah's 6 favorite books about war and colonialism
The Nobel Prize winner recommends works by Michael Ondaatje, Toni Morrison, and more
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.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
‘The Convoy’ by Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse (2024)
Mairesse’s new memoir, available from Open Borders Press in London, is a moving and powerful account of the violence of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the aftermath for the survivors. Its descriptions of the terrors of her days in hiding is unforgettable. Buy it here.
‘Song of Solomon’ by Toni Morrison (1977)
The language of Morrison’s third novel astounds from its first pages to its triumphant conclusion. Its story of Macon Dead’s turbulent journey to his ancestral beginnings in the South is an epic of the African-American experience. Buy it here.
‘Waiting for the Barbarians’ by J.M. Coetzee (1980)
The narrator of Waiting for the Barbarians is a liberal man in his own estimation and a magistrate in a frontier town. The setting is precise in physical details, but its location is not named. However, it is difficult not to see the novel as a parable of apartheid South Africa and the dilemma of the liberal in that context, who is driven by a desire for reprieve but whose gesture made to achieve it is ineffectual. A work of great accomplishment. Buy it here.
‘Celestial Bodies’ by Jokha Alharthi (2010)
This is the story of three sisters growing into adulthood as Oman transforms from an austere patriarchal society into a new vibrancy. The novel’s impact comes from an unforced elegant prose and a delicately balanced structure. Buy it here.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Film reviews: A House of Dynamite, After the Hunt, and It Was Just an AccidentFeature A nuclear missile bears down on a U.S. city, a sexual misconduct allegation rocks an elite university campus, and a victim of government terror pursues vengeance
-
Book reviews: ‘Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife’ and ‘Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong With Baseball and How to Fix It’Feature Gertrude Stein’s untold story and Jane Leavy’s playbook on how to save baseball
-
Rachel Ruysch: Nature Into ArtFeature Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, through Dec. 7
-
Music reviews: Olivia Dean, Madi Diaz, and Hannah FrancesFeature “The Art of Loving,” “Fatal Optimist,” and “Nested in Tangles”
-
Gilbert King’s 6 favorite books about the search for justiceFeature The journalist recommends works by Bryan Stevenson, David Grann, and more
-
Ready for the apocalypseFeature As anxiety rises about the state of the world, the ranks of preppers are growing—and changing.
-
A little-visited Indian Ocean archipelagoThe Week Recommends The paradise of the Union of the Comoros features beautiful beaches, colourful coral reefs and lush forests
-
Diane Keaton: the Oscar-winning star of Annie HallIn the Spotlight Something’s Gotta Give actor dies from pneumonia at the age of 79


