Congratulations to Christ Church alumnus of the 1960s and Honorary Fellow Professor Abdulrazak Gurnah on winning the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Born in 1948 in Zanzibar, Abdulrazak is the author of seven novels which include Paradise (shortlisted for both the Booker and the Whitbread Prizes), By the Sea (longlisted for the Booker Prize and awarded the RFI Temoin du Monde Prize), and Desertion (shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize. The Last Gift, published by Bloomsbury in May 2011, is an astounding meditation on family, self and the meaning of home.

Abdulrazak is first Black African writer to win the prize for literature in 35 years for his “uncompromising and compassionate” portrayal of refugees and the effects of colonialism