is the author of seven novels which include Paradise, Admiring Silence and By the Sea. Paradise was shortlisted for both the Booker and the Whitbread Prizes. By The Sea was longlisted for the Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and won the Radio France International 'Temoin du Monde' Prize. Gurnah was born in Zanzibar and lives in Canerbury, Kent. He teaches at the University of Kent. His most recent novel is Desertion (2005), shortlisted for a 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize.

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