Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Set against the backdrop of colonial-era East Africa, Paradise tells the story of a boy named Yusuf who has been sold by his father to repay a debt. Gurnah traces his journey across a landscape shaped by trade routes, European incursion, and generational inheritance. Movement in Paradise is woven, cross-hatched, and never linear: what appears as progression often ensares Yusuf further. The novel questions who is allowed to move freely and who is moved against their will. It is, above all, a story about crossings: of borders, of childhood into adulthood, and of self into something less knowable.