 | |
| Author | Abdulrazak Gurnah |
|---|---|
| Publisher | The New Press |
Publication date | 1 November 1996 |
| Pages | 224 |
| ISBN | 1-56584-349-5 |
| Preceded by | Paradise |
| Followed by | By the Sea |
Admiring Silence is a 1996 novel by Abdulrazak Gurnah. It is Gurnah's fifth novel and was first published by The New Press on 1 November 1996.[1][2]
The plot follows an unnamed Zanzibari man living in England, after fleeing there in the early 1960s.[3] In England he becomes a teacher and raises a daughter with his white English lover. After his 20-year exile from his homeland, the narrator travels back to Zanzibar to reflect on his past and finds a place that is no longer home.[4][2]
The book received positive reviews from critics. A reviewer for Kirkus Reviews described it as a "beautifully calibrated story of a wrenching search for home" and praised its themes of immigration and colonialism.[2] Publishers Weekly applauded Gurnah's examination of cultural issues and the narrator's characterization.[5]
- ^ Barasa, Remmy Shiundu; Makokha, J. K. S. (2011). "Weaving Exilic Narratives: Homodiegetic Narration and Postcolonial Translocation in Abdulrazak Gurnah's Admiring Silence". In Wawrzinek, Jennifer; Makokha, J. K. S. (eds.). Negotiating Afropolitanism: Essays on Borders and Spaces in Contemporary African Literature and Folklor. Brill. p. 215. ISBN 978-90-420-3223-1.
- ^ a b c "Admiring Silence". Kirkus Reviews. 20 May 2010. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ^ Winters, Laura (1996-10-20). "BOOKS IN BRIEF: FICTION AND POETRY". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-10-09.
- ^ Tepper, Anderson (7 October 2021). "5 books to start you off with Nobel Prize Literature winner Abdulrazak Gurnah". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ^ "Fiction Book Review: Admiring Silence by Abdulrazak Gurnah". Publishers Weekly. 14 October 1996. Retrieved 8 October 2021.