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Article: Question marks over the empire's decision
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- September 10, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1994 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The taxi driver taking me to see Abdulrazak Gurnah has hands
covered in blue zigzags, birds, triangles and numbers. Such
fabulous markings wouldn't look out of place in Gurnah's novel,
Paradise (Hamish Hamilton, pounds 14.99). Set on the East
African coast, a world away from Canterbury (where Dr Gurnah
teaches), Paradise is peopled by Africans, Arabs, Indians and the
dusty warriors who adorn themselves "with the dedication of brothel
queens", their "tight plaits . . . dyed red like the earth".
Gurnah's fourth novel has now been shortlisted for the Booker, and
on the bleak campus of the University of Kent it seems
fantastically exotic.
Paradise (the word comes from the Farsi for "garden") ...