With the announcement of the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, the winning writer Abdulazark Gürna quickly entered the field of vision of domestic readers; Prior to this, the writer, who was born on a small island off the coast of East Africa and immigrated to the United Kingdom, was almost never noticed and understood by national readers. Who is Gürna? What is the charm of his work? ...... In the eyes of most Chinese readers, the literary world of the "unpopular" Nobel laureate is nothing more than a puzzle with nowhere to start.
In August 2022, less than a year after Gulner won the Nobel Prize, Shanghai Translation Publishing House announced that the five masterpieces of the first series of Gurna's works - "Heaven", "Afterlife", "Praise silence", "The Last Gift" and "The Seaside" will open for pre-sale on the 25th of this month. Gulner also sent a greeting video from his home in the Uk, fully affirming the efforts of the Shanghai Translation Publishing House.
Translating, reviewing, proofreading, and printing Five of Gulner's novels in just 10 months was not an easy task — not to mention that during this period, the publishing team also underwent a two-month pandemic lockdown. According to the Shanghai Translation Publishing House, from participating in the bidding to fully obtaining the right to translate Gulner's works, to completing the task two months earlier than the estimated publication time, the working group is racing against time every day. In order to grandly launch the author's works, the publishing house has launched the "Limited Edition of Colored Edges on Canvas" on August 22 at the Tmall flagship store of Shanghai Translation Publishing House for readers to book and collect. Another 5 works, Memories of Parting, The Pilgrim's Way, Dotty, Abandonment, and Gravel Heart will also be available to readers soon.
Scattered people, looking for stories to go home
Gurna was born in 1948 on the island of Zanzibar off the coast of East Africa. It is a small island full of charm, and the fusion of multiple cultures is a major feature here; It is also a small island full of turmoil, after decades of British colonial rule and brief independence, Zanzibar merged with Tanganyika in 1964 to form Tanzania.
In 1968, Gurna went to england as a refugee and began to write about his feelings of wandering away from home in a diary in the following years. These contents evolved into fictional stories about others, culminating in his debut novel, Memory of Departure.
2021 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Gurna receives medals and certificates photo by ADRIAN DENNIS
It can be said that the moving features of Gurna's works are closely related to his own personal experience and complex emotions about his homeland. The cruel past of his hometown ethnic group kept flashing, forcing him to go back and forth. As a result, "memory", "refugees", "identity", "cruelty", "love" and "weakness" have become the consistent themes of Gürner's works. He constructs his own literary world like a jigsaw puzzle, constantly picking up every separatist and foreigner, summoning and pursuing the memories of his homeland and other places buried in the depths of his soul. In 2021, Gürna won the Nobel Prize in Literature for "uncompromising and compassionate insight into the impact of colonialism and the fate of refugees in the gulf between different cultures and continents." It is this deep concern for the wandering hearts of foreigners and the profound exploration of the crisis of immigrant identity that allows Gurna's works to cross continents and countries, and to touch every wandering heart.
Five works spell out grand narrative pictures
Although Gulner has always written around the memory of his homeland, the theme of his work is not the same, but can bring readers a rich cultural imagination and emotional experience.
Of the first five of Gürna's works published, Heaven and The Afterlife trace the story of Zanzibar's ancestors, and readers can read them as coming-of-age novels. Published in 1994, "Heaven" is one of Gurna's masterpieces, the author uses the perspective of youth without world events and filters, telling the difficult growth path of individuals embedded in the background of social turmoil and historical change, in order to "strive to preserve that memory, retrieve the moments and stories on which people live and recognize themselves"; "The Afterlife" is Gurna's latest work published in 2020, in the shadow of colonization, the protagonists began to read and write by chance, determined to escape from their homeland and original family, and pursue a wider world.
"The Seaside" is one of the works that best reflects Gurna's concern for the situation of refugees, especially the refugee groups in the cracks between different cultures. The novel uncovers the reasons for the protagonist Omar's departure from home in a multi-perspective narrative, piecing together memories ranging from family feuds to colonial independence history and placing them in the grand social picture of the times. By the Sea was shortlisted for the 2001 Booker Awards and the Los Angeles Times Book Awards.
"Praise for Silence" and "The Last Gift" can be seen as sister chapters, focusing on the identity crisis encountered by two generations of immigrants and trying to explore where the way out is. In "Praise silence", the protagonist has been trying to integrate into the new life of the British city for more than 20 years, trying to please everyone, but living physically and mentally exhausted - on the one hand, it is a hometown that can never go back, on the other hand, it is a place that is incompatible, in a dilemma, and all hopes eventually become "disappointed love". "The Last Gift" continues to write about the loneliness and struggle of the wanderer, but in this book, the protagonist finally makes his voice heard.
Gurna repeatedly walked into every wandering mind, trying to answer the question of whether the hometown should be the past or the future? This is the question that plagues the minds of each of us in modern times. Looking for Gurna's words, we can also get closer to the homeland of the soul step by step, and find a confirmation and stability of our own hearts.
As of the Nandu reporter's press release, 50,000 sets of works have been sent from printing factories to online and offline bookstores across the country, and it is expected to achieve full stock in early September. At that time, the e-book version of Gulner's works will also be available on major e-book platforms. Chinese readers can read Gulner's works while looking forward to the announcement of this year's Nobel Prize in Literature.
Nandu reporter Huang Qian