An updated 1000 and one nights, this time less a story of enchantment, more an infinitely sad tale of loss and displacement shared between two African refugees. Elegantly written, tirelessly detailed, it offers a glimpse of one background to and explanation for emigration. Fine work from a recently more widely recognized writer.

It is impossible to summarize this novel by Nobel Prize winner Gurnah. Suffice it to say that is like One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, story within story, every character worthy of their own story, the past melding with the present, the entwining of people through events in the same village in Zanzibar, from Zanzibar and the whole East coast of Africa all the way to a drab seaside town in the UK. The storyteller at the center is Saleh Omar, 65, a Zanzibar native who seeks asylum in England, a learned articulate man who has been told by the ticketseller at home to claim he cannot speak English when he arrives in the UK with his meager possessions aside from a teak box filled with indescribable incense. The second storyteller is Latif Mahmud, long living in London, a professor and poet and fellow Zanzibari from the same seaside town as Omar. Alienation and connection, despair and forgiveness, a luminous winding tale I did not want to end.

Thanks to Riverhead Books and Netgalley for an ARC.

There are a lot of undercurrents running softly through this story.. At one time the colonization of African through countries gaining their independence, and the toughness they had in keeping their freedom. Lots of ruminations and long back story, at times making the reading tedious.
Such a strong author and not to be overlooked, but for a reader who recognizes symbols, time changes and strong undercurrents. Not an easy read, but one well worth reading.
Thank you Net Galley.