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Memory of Departure: A Novel.

Memory of Departure: A Novel.

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Memory of Departure: A Novel.

by Abdulrazak Gurnah

  • Used
  • Hardcover
  • first
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About This Item

New York: The Grove Press, 1988. First edition of the author's first novel. Octavo, original half cloth. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket illustration and design by Bascove. This haunting coming-of-age novel evokes in spare but vivid prose the exotic sights, sounds and landscapes of coastal East Africa and the spiritual rebirth of a sensitive 15-year-old. Living with his family in a poverty-stricken seaport village, the hero, Hassan Omar, is surrounded by a self-perpetuating cycle of violence and despair. His own sense of hopelessness is nurtured by the stunted lives around him: his drunken, tyrannical, libertine father; a sister, who escapes the blind-alley of their lives into headlong promiscuity; a dissolute older brother, who succumbs to the squalor and eventually dies in a freakish accident; and finally, his mother, who has fatalistically resigned herself to being brutalized by her husband. Eventually, Hassan leaves his family to stay with an uncle in Nairobi, and there he discovers a larger world, which contains its share of cruelty as well but also hope and redemptiona way out of his old life and his immobilizing self-hatred. Hassan's rite of passage eventually comes to stand for something larger, although Gurnah, who was born in Tanzania and now teaches in an English university, merely suggests this message: the hero's aspirations and dilemmas reflect the struggles of Third World Africa to shed its colonial skin, with its tradition of poverty and oppression, and to construct a new identity for itself. This is a short book, but dense, often hair-raising in its dramatic scenes of degradation and compelling in its rendering of Hassan's evolving consciousness.

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Details

Bookseller
Raptis Rare Books US (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #
129533
Title
Memory of Departure: A Novel.
Author
Abdulrazak Gurnah
Book Condition
Used
Binding
Hardcover
Publisher
The Grove Press
Place of Publication
New York
Date Published
1988
Keywords
Abdulrazak Gurnah First Edition, Memory of Departure: A Novel First Edition

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About the Seller

Raptis Rare Books

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2012
Palm Beach, Florida

About Raptis Rare Books

Founded by Matthew and Adrienne Raptis, Raptis Rare Books is an antiquarian book firm that specializes in literature, children's books, economics, photo books, signed and inscribed books, and landmark books in all fields. Our business model is simple: we strive to handle books that are in exceptional condition and to provide exceptional customer service.

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Leaves
Very generally, "leaves" refers to the pages of a book, as in the common phrase, "loose-leaf pages." A leaf is a single sheet...
Octavo
Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
Fine
A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
Jacket
Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
First Edition
In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...

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