Set in 1970s Zanzibar, this is a character-driven work of historical fiction about a dysfunctional family that never quite redeem themselves. The writing style is detached and I found it difficult to get emotionally involved in the plot, but Gurnah tells a story about his country that needs to be told.

This was a quiet book. I chose it not because I had heard of and/or read the author's previous work, but because I like intergenerational stories and stories with immigration and how it affects families. I enjoyed this book.

Riveting read and engaging from beginning to end. Not only does Gravel Heart give you insight into life in Zanzibar, but the characters' stories allow you to visualize the social environment and plight during that time.

This story, though set in the 90's, is so relevant with all of the immigration issues happening around the world. Good story that readers will connect with.

The fact that Gravel Heart is set in 1970s Zanzibar means it is already steeped in mystery for me as I had to look up where its located (an island off the coast of Tanzania). From the very opening the plot itself is intriguing, with Salim, a young man, being offered a chance to emigrate to England to stay with his much loved and charismatic uncle Amir. Amir will pay for everything, he will study business and become a success. The choice is an easy one as Salim does not have much of a life in Zanzibar. His father left him and his mother when he was a little boy and it isn’t until he is a teenager and his mother his pregnant that he realizes it was because she was having an affair. That his father is shamed and now his mother has agreed to be a second wife, makes leaving easy for Salim.

Except that once in London he finds adapting difficult and decides that business is boring. He wants to study literature. This enrages his uncle who cuts him off and leaves him to find his own way. For the rest of the novel Salim does just that, including going home to try and find answers to the things he never understood about his mother and father.

The circumstances of Gravel Heart are the sort that make for powerful reading—a foreign place and culture, the immigrant experience, and the many layers to family relationships. Abdulrazak Gurnah has a gift with words, but there is a layer of detachment in the novel’s telling that, while it may be cultural, made it hard to connect. Despite the title, it felt more like a novel of the head than the heart.

This is a beautifully written book set in the 70's in Zanzibar. I never felt particularly connected to the character and though the descriptions were good, I didn't really feel the setting. It was an interesting look at another culture, though, and for that I give it three stars.

This is nicely written but I'd hoped for more, given that it's partially set in Zanzibar, has colonialism and revolution as a backdrop, and is about an immigrant experience. Salim seemed detached from pretty much everything to me but that might have been the point. This is set in the 1970s wen cultural dislocations and ignorance were larger because there wasn't, among other things, an internet or international cable news but Gurnah doesn't really explore those. Salim's slow understanding of his mother is the most interesting part of this novel. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Try this one if you'd like a literary view of Zanzibar.

i cannot say that i liked this book -- i don't know there is much to like, but more about this later -- but there are authors, and gurnah is one of them, that are so good, so established, so deep, that you read their books and cannot but find that the writing is full of wonder and wisdom. the sense i get is that these writers, writers who have been writing forever not to win prizes but to tell the truth about their countries, don't care about how they will be received. there is an inner compulsion, a story that needs to be told, and they sit down and write it. let the marketers market it.

the sentence that starts the book is deceiving. salim is not unloved by his father. what instead happens is that, at some point, his father moves out of the small, bare-bone family shack he shares with his wife and son and takes up living in almost complete mutism in the back of a friend's store. salim and salim's mother keep taking care of him by bringing him food, because the man has become pretty much unable to function. when he does speak, his words appear to be entirely nonsensical.

eventually salim becomes older enough to be sponsored by his maternal uncle, a functionary at the zanzibar embassy in london, as a foreign student in england. he leaves africa behind and becomes an immigrant -- or a refugee (where does the line lie between immigrants and refugees?).

a big chunk of the novel takes place in london and then brighton. i won't say much about this bit except that salim appears to be profoundly dislocated, both externally and internally. he can only hang out with other african or south asian students and has difficulty creating meaningful relationship with women. in spite of being gifted and precocious, he is unable to make anything of himself. the big promise of the west falls flat for him, mostly because he finds it an empty and unappealing promise, the taking up of which would require a renunciation of his soul.

by the end we learn what really happened to the father (a very nice payoff for the readers who have dragged themselves through the story of salim's misery), but this is something you have to find out for yourself.

i think salim's dislocation, incapacity to bond with anyone, incapacity to care, and yet fundamental kindness, are meant to be both a result of his father's (and, to some extent, mother's) rejection, and a reflection or embodiment of the corruption to which his country has fallen prey and of colonial brutality (the two being inextricably linked).

this book is ultimately a big critique of the west and in particular of english colonialism, of its having run roughshod for centuries over the lives of generations of brown-skinned people only to become the mecca to which these same people, lacking real "opportunity" in their own countries, are forced to flock in further humiliation.

it's a story of debasement, historical trauma, and the personal and global alienation forced by the west on the developing world.

i was really taken by the kindness quite a number of the novel's characters extend to each other. there are certainly evil people in this book, but there are many more people, mostly men (this is a book full of men) who are caring, tender and generous to a fault.

(thanks to netgalley and bloomsbury for an advance copy of this book.)

This book is beautifully written and this author has the gift of being able to capture the deep, honest and true essence of an actual place in time. Though this wasn't my favorite read it was interesting.

Tried to read this one, but after the main character described her father as "fondling" her multiple times, I lost all interest. Perhaps the word wasn't intended to describe what the author was thinking of, but the word fondle can be a huge trigger to sexual abuse victims.

Such superb writing! This novel delved into a range of complex issues with a gentleness of prose. Thanks to this author's talent, I was able to enjoy both the plot and nuanced storytelling.

review at http://www.robertsheard.com/reviews/gravel-heart

This has to be the first book that I've read based in Zanzibar. It was awesome to read about different cultures and see how other people lived in the 70's. The book was well written, taking me through Salim's life as he struggles with his father's distance, to his mother's suspected infidelity and the move the London with his uncle. The emotions are raw and the story doesn't hold back. Gurnah has shared a story that will touch many lives and open the eyes of the world to the struggles of different cultures.