Click for full-size.
The Last Gift: A Novel
by Gurnah, Abdulrazak (b. 1948)
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Bound in yellow paper over boards with spine titled in black. Moderate bump at top of upper joint, else fine in a fine dust jack
- Seller
-
Annapolis, Maryland, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Bloomsbury, 2014. First U.S. printing. Hardcover. Octavo. [iv], 279 pages. Bound in yellow paper over boards with spine titled in black. Moderate bump at top of upper joint, else fine in a fine dust jacket.. This was Abdulrazak Gurnah's eighth novel, and centers on an east African immigrant named Abbas, who has raised a family in England and now reflects on the past he has never told anyone about. A stroke has now rendered him unable to speak about it. <br /> <br /> Gurnah won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021, "...for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.".
Synopsis
One day, long before the troubles, he slipped away without saying a word to anyone and never went back. And then another day, forty three years later, he collapsed just inside the front door of his house in a small English town. It was late in the day when it happened, on his way home after work, but it was also late in the day altogether. He had left things for too long and there was no one to blame for it but himself. Abbas has never told anyone about his past - before he was a sailor on the high seas, before he met his wife Maryam outside a Boots in Exeter, before they settled into a quiet life in Norwich with their children, Jamal and Hanna. Now, at the age of sixty-three, he suffers a collapse that renders him bedbound and unable to speak about things he thought he would one day have to. Jamal and Hanna have grown up and gone out into the world. They were both born in England but cannot shake a sense of apartness. Hanna calls herself Anna now, and has just moved to a new city to be near her boyfriend. She feels the relationship is headed somewhere serious, but the words have not yet been spoken out loud. Jamal, the listener of the family, moves into a student house and is captivated by a young woman with dark-blue eyes and her own, complex story to tell. Abbas's illness forces both children home, to the dark silences of their father and the fretful capability of their mother Maryam, who began life as a foundling and has never thought to find herself, until now.
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Back Creek Books LLC, ABAA/ILAB
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 1044
- Title
- The Last Gift: A Novel
- Author
- Gurnah, Abdulrazak (b. 1948)
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover. Octavo. [iv], 279 pages
- Book Condition
- Used - Bound in yellow paper over boards with spine titled in black. Moderate bump at top of upper joint, else fine in a fine dust jack
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First U.S. printing
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 2014
- Keywords
- first editions, collectable books, nobel prize winners, colonialism,
- Bookseller catalogs
- Fiction & Literature;
Terms of Sale
Back Creek Books LLC, ABAA/ILAB
Your complete satisfaction is guaranteed, and any book is returnable for a full refund if not as described. We accept payment by American Express, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, PayPal, check, or money order. We pack and ship in corrugated cardboard boxes for protection in transit. Shipping costs for Priority Mail, international destinations, or heavy items occasionally need to be adjusted, in which case we will contact you for approval. Institutions and libraries may request an invoice. We can email digital photographs of any available book upon request.
About the Seller
Back Creek Books LLC, ABAA/ILAB
Biblio member since 2006
Annapolis, Maryland
About Back Creek Books LLC, ABAA/ILAB
We buy and sell quality used and out-of-print books, with an emphasis on Americana, Military and Naval History, and Nautical material. But we have many good books in a variety of subjects. We are located in historic Annapolis, Maryland.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Octavo
- Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
Frequently asked questions
Collecting food and drink books
Nothing quite whets the appetite for rare and collectible books like old and vintage cookbooks. Be sure to check out our cook books and food section of our rare book room.
How to tell if a signature is genuine
Author's signatures can undoubtedly increase the value of a rare book or first edition. The more scarce the book is, the more an autograph adds to its value. But how to tell if the signature is real? Find out how you can avoid common pitfalls in identifying an author's signature.
