GRAVEL HEART by Abdulrazak Gurnah
This was a surprising YES from me and I wouldn’t hesitate to read more of Gurnah’s work.
Gravel Heart is a novel I bought while in Canada over Christmas. Written by Tanzanian-British author Abdulrazak Gurnah, it is a novel telling the story of Salim, a young Tanzanian who is raised by his mother after the disintegration of her marriage and the complexities surrounding that breakdown. Salim is then taken to London to live with his Uncle, his mother’s brother, to attend university.
Released in 2017, Gurnah was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021 which has seen a resurgence in the popularity of his work. I had not known his work until I found it at Bookmark in Charlottetown over Christmas. Some of the criticism I have seen of this book is that nothing much interesting happens to Salim in this story.
I push back on that criticism - I am not someone who believes that every great novel must have a climax in its plot point to be of interest of value. Instead, this is a simple telling of Salim’s life and experience and the choices made, particularly by his mother, father and Uncle, which affect his life. Part of what makes it interesting is the ordinariness of that life, but also the lack of control he had over the impact it had on him, particularly during his youth. Salim’s isn’t an easy nor terribly difficult life - but it has layers of complexity and inter-generational trauma, the affects of colonisation and the influence of Islam woven through it.
This is a novel that is not long but took me a week to read, because I often felt that I needed to really contemplate the story and the choices of Salim and his family. It is not a quick read - English is not Gurnah’s native language although he writes as though it is. The book is beautifully written, but layered - this is a book that requires deep reading and thought. Nothing can be skipped over easily.
I felt deep empathy for Salim through this book, especially at its conclusion. I could understand his disappointment in himself and the way life has turned out for him, having been known to feel such myself at times. It is a reminder that while big goals and dreams are important, they are often over dramatised and look nothing like we imagined they might.
This was a surprising YES from me and I wouldn’t hesitate to read more of Gurnah’s work.