Afterlives

A Novel

By: Abdulrazak Gurnah

Narrated by: Damian Lynch

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022

A NEW YORKER “ESSENTIAL READ”

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, THE NEW YORKER, BOOKPAGE, AND KIRKUS REVIEWS

“Superb. . . . A celebration of a place and time when people held onto their own ways, and basked in ordinary joys even as outside forces conspired to take them away.” —New York Times

From the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, a sweeping, multi-generational saga of displacement, loss, and love, set against the brutal colonization of east Africa.

When he was just a boy, Ilyas was stolen from his parents on the coast of east Africa by German colonial troops. After years away, fighting against his own people, he returns home to find his parents gone and his sister, Afiya, abandoned into de facto slavery. Hamza, too, returns home from the war, scarred in body and soul and with nothing but the clothes on his back–until he meets the beautiful, undaunted Afiya. As these young people live and work and fall in love, their fates knotted ever more tightly together, the shadow of a new war on another continent falls over them, threatening once again to carry them away.

Remarkanble history

The history revealed filled gaps in my knowledge of African.
Some characterizations were minimal and were of less importance than the thread of the story. Plot was simple also. The strength of the novel was in seeing the affect the long history had on main characters and how they coped with German and British rule. The story showed the contrast between the European's dispraging view of African people and the reality of the competence of African's and the success of the African civilizations.

Interesting viewpoint of African experience

Very well narrated story of West African colonial experience but from the African viewpoint v. the colonizer’s perspective.

History Lesson with abrupt ending

I enjoyed learning the history regarding east Africa and West India, however the characters didn’t feel fully dimensional and it was difficult to form attachments, you could feel a physical distance from them when reading, rather than feeling like you were there. The driving force of this book is the quest for finding out what became of the brother, and this kept my interest but I was quite disappointed with the rushed ending and info dump within the last few pages. Made it feel meaningless when it should’ve been quite emotional. I’d recommend for the history but the plot, characters and pacing needed work

Enlightening portrayal

What I most liked about this story is that it prompted me to unpack the outrageous audacity of the European powers at the beginning of the 20th century. Every part of Africa was claimed by one of 7 or 8 nations by 1914. The story was about the impact of German occupation of east Africa (now Tanzania) which forced young African men to serve in their wars of dominance. The story is told from the view of common villagers who had to manage their own trauma and carve out their own lives. Very appealing characters and some less so. Readers will recognize them from their own lives.
It would have helped to have key names spelled out for reference while reading.

Very Disappointing Despite the Hype

Too much minutia, not enough insight. Nothing new about colonial ravages in Africa. A long slog to reach a ho-hum conclusion.