Changing places and writing the postcolonial novel

In this conversation Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (2021), discusses the nature of his fiction and how he became a writer. He outlines the factors that made him become a writer; the themes that he explores in his writing; the nature of his writing style; his literary allusions; the importance of family and the secrets that families keep; and his conception of his reader. The conversation highlights the significance of exile in his work, the ways in which people belong in communities, how frightening isolation can be for individuals, and how people cope in adverse circumstances.