Instead of talking about performance anxiety, he describes the prize as "very encouraging". In addition, it made readers curious around the world; his novels were printed in new editions and translations. "A fairly wonderful process" for any author, according to Gurnah.
The writing process is the same, to write is still to write, it made no difference to me that someone had said "your work is pretty okay after all". I still have to do it.
But is there perhaps some small downside?
Nothing was bad. Really not. Traveling is exhausting, but it has nothing to do with the prize itself, that's just what traveling is like these days.
Duckat
Nor does this year's prize winner László Krasznahorkai seem to complain, but has so far ducked public appearances after the announcement.
People respond to these social things in different ways, some want to be left alone, I of course want to be left alone when I want to be alone, but that's not the most important thing. If new editions come out, I'm glad to meet the readers, up to a certain limit of course.
The visit to Sweden is booked due to his novel, "Stöld" - the first after the Nobel Prize. It was started already before and the difficult thing has been to find consecutive writing time, he says. But not even that situation was new.
Throughout my entire career, I had two jobs, I was an academic and wrote fiction.
Oskyldig
"Stöld" takes place in Tanzania, which Gurnah "can't shake off". At the center are Karim, Bader, and Fauzia, three young people "without free passes" as Gurnah puts it. Bader has the worst starting position, as he is wrongly accused of theft.
He is an orphan, he is a servant, he is not allowed to go to school. He has to rely on what he sees and can understand, but it wouldn't be enough if it weren't for the compassion he meets. We need others to help us.
"Stöld" is also about tourism in Zanzibar and Gurnah highlights the deep divide between his main characters and aid workers or tourists. A British volunteer girl makes sure to have an erotic vacation adventure with the unfortunate family man Karim, whose marriage may have crashed anyway.
Some readers have said that they hate her, says Gurnah, who wanted to portray how tourism opens up for "new seductions".
She doesn't think about breaking up people's lives, she thinks about herself, at worst she is selfish.
Born: 1948 on the island of Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania.
Lives: In Canterbury, England.
Background: Came to England at the age of 18 after being forced to flee his home country in connection with the revolution in 1964, when people with an Arab background were persecuted.
Started writing at the age of 21 during exile. His first language is Swahili, but his literary language became English.
Has published eleven novels, including "Paradiset" (2012) and "Efterliv" 2021. In his authorship, the refugee's experience and the colonial legacy as a theme recur.
