Frances Dykstra

This prose is almost pastoral though it involves slavery and other cruelties among people. Until the very last pages colonial Germans and their barbarism exist only as an ominous cloud on the horizon so this is not really about the destructive nature of colonialism. I learned from a review that the text parallels the story of Yusuf from the Koran. I liked Gurnah’s authorial voice and the stories of believable everyday characters prior to colonialism.