Gravel heart / Abdulrazak Gurnah.
By: Gurnah, Abdulrazak [author.].
Publisher: London : Bloomsbury Publishing, ©2018Description: 261 pages ; 20 cm.Content type: text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 9781639730018; 163973001X.Subject(s): Since 1964 | English fiction -- Tanzanian authors | Tanzanians -- England -- London -- Fiction | Identity (Philosophical concept) -- Fiction | Immigrants -- Cultural assimilation -- Fiction | Absentee fathers -- Fiction | Absentee fathers | Identity (Philosophical concept) | Immigrants -- Cultural assimilation | Politics and government | Tanzanians | Zanzibar -- Politics and government -- 1964- -- Fiction | Zanzibar -- History -- Revolution, 1964 -- Fiction | London (England) -- Fiction | England -- London | Tanzania -- ZanzibarGenre/Form: Fiction. | Print books. | History.Summary: Salim has always known that his father does not want him. Living with his parents and his adored Uncle Amir in a house full of secrets, he is a bookish child, a dreamer haunted by night terrors. It is the 1970s and Zanzibar is changing. Tourists arrive, the island's white sands obscuring the memory of recent conflict--the longed-for independence from British colonialism swiftly followed by bloody revolution. When his father moves out, retreating into disheveled introspection, Salim is confused and ashamed. His mother does not discuss the change, nor does she explain her absences with a strange man; silence is layered on silence. When glamorous Uncle Amir, now a senior diplomat, offers Salim an escape, the lonely teenager travels to London for college. But nothing has prepared him for the biting cold and seething crowds of this hostile city. Struggling to find a foothold, and to understand the darkness at the heart of his family, he must face devastating truths about those closest to him--and about love, sex, and power. Evoking the immigrant experience with unsentimental precision and profound understanding, Gravel Heart is a powerfully affecting story of isolation, identity, belonging, and betrayal.| Current location | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| On Shelf | PR9399.9.G87 G73 2018 (Browse shelf) | Available | AU00000000017883 |
Salim has always known that his father does not want him. Living with his parents and his adored Uncle Amir in a house full of secrets, he is a bookish child, a dreamer haunted by night terrors. It is the 1970s and Zanzibar is changing. Tourists arrive, the island's white sands obscuring the memory of recent conflict--the longed-for independence from British colonialism swiftly followed by bloody revolution. When his father moves out, retreating into disheveled introspection, Salim is confused and ashamed. His mother does not discuss the change, nor does she explain her absences with a strange man; silence is layered on silence. When glamorous Uncle Amir, now a senior diplomat, offers Salim an escape, the lonely teenager travels to London for college. But nothing has prepared him for the biting cold and seething crowds of this hostile city. Struggling to find a foothold, and to understand the darkness at the heart of his family, he must face devastating truths about those closest to him--and about love, sex, and power. Evoking the immigrant experience with unsentimental precision and profound understanding, Gravel Heart is a powerfully affecting story of isolation, identity, belonging, and betrayal.