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A stunning and elegiac look at a world where imperialism has opened up boundaries, only to close off borders. Powerful and profound, it reveals an author at the height of his powers.
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Review:
Abdulrazak Gurnah's By the Sea tells of an elderly man coming to Britain from Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania, as an asylum seeker. Rajab Shaaban--the name on his passport--does not explain to the British immigration authorities why he needs asylum, expecting only to be accepted, as the government of Zanzibar has been officially designated "as dangerous to its own citizens". The picture Gurnah paints of the asylum-seeker's lot in late 20th-century Britain is not a favourable one. Shaaban comes to Britain claiming he cannot speak English, yet understands all that is said to him. Through this deception he meets, after 30 years, the son of his namesake; Latif Mahmud has settled in Britain and is presented as an academic expert who will speak Rajab's language. We also receive glimpses of the torture and imprisonment of Shaaban in his own country, where men abuse their power after independence from colonialism. However, this unfair treatment is marginalised by the deception, bitterness and revenge that reverberates between the two families of Gurnah's story.
Review:
By the Sea does not present the reader with sympathetic characters and the tales that are woven are often confusing and petty. Mahmud and Shaaban take it in turns to tell their side of the story, almost drenching the reader with too much detail. Notably, Gurnah always makes his characters point out that they do not tell each other the whole truth; they leave gaps as if to protect each other and their families. Unfortunately, this makes the narrative distant and incomplete. It is hard to appreciate the stories and lives being unravelled when the narrators themselves seem unlikeable and distrustful. However, this may merely be a reflection of the bitterness and deprivation suffered in post-colonial Zanzibar, and the desolation that refugees find when away from their birth land. --Olivia Dickinson
"From the opening lines you know you're in the hands of a real writer, someone with something to say about the world." -- The Observer, 7th July 2002
"an impressive story" -- Financial Times, 6th July 2002
"an impressive story" -- Financial Times, 6th July 2002
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- PublisherBloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication date2001
- ISBN 10 0747552800
- ISBN 13 9780747552802
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages256
- Rating
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By the Sea
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Bloomsbury Publishing, London
(2001)
ISBN 10: 0747552800
ISBN 13: 9780747552802
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Book Description Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. First Paperback Edition. Minor crease to top cnr front cover only. 23 x 15 cm. 245 pp. Scarce. Seller Inventory # 003974
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By The Sea
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. Green boards with gilt titles to the spine. Clean pages. Firm binding. Dust jacket is price clipped. 2nd print. Professional seller. All pictures are of the actual book that is for sale. Books are dispatched in cardboard packaging and dust jackets are placed in removable protective covers. Seller Inventory # 15107
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By the Sea
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Book Description Hardback. Condition: Good. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine. Seller Inventory # GOR001763490
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By the Sea
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Book Description Condition: Good. Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. Foxing to the pages. Seller Inventory # wbs3832578047
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By The Sea (1st Edition)
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Book Description Hard Cover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Green boards with gilt titles to the spine. Clean pages. Firm binding. Dust jacket is not price clipped. A hard to find 1st. Professional seller. All pictures are of the actual book that is for sale. Books are dispatched in cardboard packaging and dust jackets are placed in removable protective covers. Seller Inventory # 16007
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By The Sea (1st Edition)
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. Green boards with gilt titles to the spine. Clean pages. Firm unread binding. Dust jacket is not price clipped. A hard to find 1st. Professional seller. All pictures are of the actual book that is for sale. Books are dispatched in cardboard packaging and dust jackets are placed in removable protective covers. Seller Inventory # 14603
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By the Sea; SIGNED 1st/1st
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Signed by Abdulrazak Gurnah to the title page. A near fine copy of a first edition, first impression hardback in a very good, unclipped dustjacket (page edge darkening; two small tears, edge wear & slight fade to spine) All books are swathed in biodegradable bubble wrap and posted in strong, custom made book boxes to ensure undamaged delivery. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 014104
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By The Sea (Signed Uncorrected Proof Copy)
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Book Description Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Card covers. Clean pages. Firm binding. Rare uncorrected proof copy. Signed and inscribed by the author to the title page. Professional seller. All pictures are of the actual book that is for sale. Books are dispatched in cardboard packaging. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 15920
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BY THE SEA (1/1 - with contemporary Bloomsbury revew sheet)
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(2001)
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First UK Edition. First impression of the first UK edition, with full number-string sequence including the no. "1" on the printer's page: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1. ***Very good in turquoise cloth-covered boards, with metallic copper titles to the spine, and with a matching integral reading ribbon. Boards clean and unmarked. Head and tail of spine slightly creased. No bumps. Corners sharp. No reading creases to the spine. Internally also very good with no inscriptions. ***Please note that there are a couple of stains to the pages, affecting p.187/8 & p. 203/4. There is also a light production crease affecting p.151/2 [please see scans]. The cheap paper stock has tanned. No foxing. No tears. Spine tight. ***In a very good illustrated dustwrapper with orange and black titles to the spine. The dustwrapper has not been price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's printed price of £16.99. The dustwrapper is complete without any significant faults. Corners just slightly rubbed, with some fading to the spine and the orange titles on the spine. No chips or tears. No creases. Dustwrapper bright. ***242 mm x160 mm. 245 pages plus a Note on the Author and a Note on the Type at the back of the book. ***'"By the Sea" is narrated, in part, by a man named Saleh Omar, who is attempting to enter the United Kingdom on a fake passport. Omar also goes by the pseudonym "Rajab Shaaban Mahmud", an identity he stole to use on his fake passport. The novel is also narrated, in part, by Latif Mahmud, the son of the real Rajab Shaaban Mahmud?a man who turns out to be a scoundrel. Mahmud also travels to Europe, but by a more legitimate route?obtaining a student visa to East Germany and travelling by a circuitous route from there to the UK. Michael Pye, in a review for The New York Times, notes the novel's self-conscious echoes of Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener". Saleh Omar, the protagonist, quotes Bartleby's mantra "I would prefer not to"; Pye argues that "by invoking Melville, Gurnah opens a little inquest into the nature of pity itself." Critic Sissy Helff argues that "By the Sea" "is a fine example of a confrontation of readers with a highly complex picture of the predicament of refugees in the wake of movement and migration."' [Wiki] ***'Abdulrazak Gurnah FRSL (born 20 Dec 1948) is a novelist and academic who is based in the United Kingdom. He was born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and moved to the United Kingdom in the 1960s as a refugee during the Zanzibar Revolution. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021 "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents". He is Emeritus Professor of English and Post-colonial Literatures at the University of Kent.' [Wiki] ***'Abdulrazak Gurnah's sixth novel is a stunning and elegiac look at a world where imperialism has opened up boundaries only to close off borders. Passionate and profound, it reveals an author at the height of his powers.' ***'Gurnah is a compelling storyteller and "Admiring Silence" exercises a mnemonic hold on the reader.' - Russell Celyn Jones [The Times] Quotes taken from the front flap and the back panel of the dustwrapper respectively.] ***A scarce copy of the first impression of the first UK edition in very good condition. The sixth published novel by Abdulrazak Gurnah, who's novels in first edition have become very hard to find since he became a Nobel Laureate. "By the Sea" was longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. ***This copy also comes with an additional insert in the form of a Bloomsbury Publishing review sheet with publication date of 21st May 2001. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc. Seller Inventory # 8125x
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By the Sea >>>> A BEAUTIFUL SIGNED UK FIRST EDITION & FIRST PRINTING HARDBACK <<<<
Published by
Bloomsbury, London
(2001)
ISBN 10: 0747552800
ISBN 13: 9780747552802
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. A near fine UK first edition & first printing hardback (slight wear and sometoning) - in a near fine unclipped dustjacket (fitted with a removable clear mylar sleeve) - All my books are always securely packed with plenty of bubblewrap in professional boxes and promptly dispatched (within 2-3 days) - SIGNED BY ABDULRAZAK GURNAH - Pictures available upon request. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 007502
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