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Desertion
A Novel
by Abdulrazak Gurnah


7.0

based on 16 reviews
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Gurnah's seventh novel is set in colonial Zanzibar, both near the beginning of British rule (in 1899) and the end (in the late 1950s).

Pantheon, 272 pages
07/26/2005
$23.00

ISBN: 0375423540

Fiction
General Literature & Fiction
Historical Fiction

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Daily Telegraph Peter Parker

Gurnah writes beautifully, with the satisfying assurance of someone who knows how to achieve his effects without undue fuss but with absolute precision.

The Independent Elleke Boehmer

For all the novel's unsettling complicities and parallels, Desertion offers many pleasures.

The Nation Laila Lalami

[Desertion] has a staying power that belies its quietness.

The Spectator Francis King

Gurnah, born and brought up in Zanzibar, deploys a style far superior to that of many a native-born English writer.

The New Yorker

A meditation on African history, estrangement, and loss.

The Guardian Mike Phillips

Most of Desertion is as beautifully written and pleasurable as anything I've read recently.

The Independent James Urquhart

There are no unequivocal judgements in Gurnah's tender prose; his lovers remain buffeted by the vagaries of received propriety and historical circumstance.

San Francisco Chronicle Alan Cheuse

A quiet but admirable achievement.

Daily Telegraph Anita Sethi

Rich in detail and filled with acute observations, [Desertion] movingly examines the absences eating away at the core of all of its characters.

Publishers Weekly

Gurnah... crafts a dense, decade-straddling story of cross-cultural love and its repercussions.

Christian Science Monitor Aaron Clark

[Desertion] is a quietly affecting, though somewhat disjointed, story of love and loneliness - and a sad testament to the narrow religious and cultural confines within which many people are forced to try to sustain their relationships.

Los Angeles Times Richard Eder

[Desertion] is awkwardly divided into three parts as it treats three Zanzibarian generations. It is intended as a roman-fleuve but the connection is schematic -- not a river but separate aquifers, each of very different composition. [14 Aug 2005]

Library Journal Prudence Peiffer

Gurnah's seventh novel... is a spirited horse straining at the bit, so it is a great pity that the author doesn't loosen the reins more and let it run. [1 May 2005, p. 72]

The New York Times Book Review Anderson Tepper

Throughout, Gurnah strains bravely -- at times poignantly -- for larger connections.

The Observer Adam Mars-Jones

Gurnah himself can be charged with a form of literary desertion, for abandoning his chosen genre before the halfway mark of the book, without coming up with a satisfactory substitute.

Kirkus Reviews

While the opening chapters here take forever to build momentum, its concluding ones are hurried and overcrowded with last-minute explanations.

The average user rating for this book is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Frank C gave it a7:
Very impressive use of language. The story segments are somewhat disjointed

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Desertion A Novel by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Desertion
A Novel
by Abdulrazak Gurnah