Entre zanzibar et le lac victoria, c'est l'afrique des "grands" explorateurs blancs, les burton, livingston, stanley, qui, après les successives conquêtes portugaises puis arabes, ont défait ce pays, alors tanganyika, en deux entités, une pour l'angleterre, une pour l'allemagne.

Dans cette histoire de dominations, l'existence du jeune yusuf est d'une extrême légèreté que chaque vent déplace, chasse, emporte. vendu par son père en règlement d'une dette, il est mis au service d'un riche propriétaire, oncle aziz. là, en compagnie d'un autre jeune esclave, il commencera l'apprentissage de sa nouvelle vie. il fera le voyage des caravanes qui traversent le continent pour commercer, au risque d'y perdre la vie.
De retour, il sera le jouet des lubies sensuelles de sa maîtresse, cloîtrée dans un jardin qui ressemblait à l'eden.
Par l'un des grands écrivains de l'afrique anglophone, le roman troublé d'une jeunesse africaine au début de ce siècle.
Lire la suite Fermer

Born in East Africa, Yusuf has few qualms about the journey he is to make. It never occurs to him to ask why he is accompanying Uncle Aziz or why the trip has been organised so suddenly, and he does not think to ask when he will be returning. But the truth is that his ''uncle'' is a rich and powerful merchant and Yusuf has been pawned to him to pay his father''s debts. Paradise is a rich tapestry of myth, dreams and Biblical and Koranic tradition, the story of a young boy''s coming of age against the backdrop of an Africa increasingly corrupted by colonialism and violence.

''One of the world''s most prominent postcolonial writers . He has consistently and with great compassion penetrated the effects of colonialism and its effects on the lives of uprooted and migrating individuals'' Anders Olsson, chairman of the Nobel Committee Delivered in London on 7 December 2021, ''Writing'' is the lecture of the Nobel Laureate in Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah. Collected here with three further essays, it explores his coming-of-age, his early experiences in 1960s Britain, the narratives of oceans, his lifelong love affair with reading, and the power of writing to subvert the stories that have been handed to us.

Generous, funny and wise, this collection is the perfect introduction to the storyteller described as ''one of Africa''s most important living writers''; whose work, now spanning four decades, continues to spin wonder and magic while offering penetrating insight into exile, migration and homecoming.

''In book after book, he guides us through seismic historic moments and devastating societal ruptures while gently outlining what it is that keeps those families, friendships and loving spaces intact'' Maaza Mengiste ''A wondrous writer'' Philippe Sands> Lire la suite Fermer