Paradise

The novel is set in colonial Africa at a time when English invaders are driving the natives out of their land and the Germans are planning to build a railroad across the continent.

Yusuf's father sells his son into slavery to pay off his debts. First, Yusuf ends up in the shop of the new owner, and then sets off on a journey across the country with a trade caravan.

The collapse of the old world, intertribal wars, superstitions, questions of slavery and inner freedom through the eyes of a boy, coupled with the problems of growing up and forbidden love, highlight for the reader the dense fabric in which Africa wraps its beauty and cruelty.

Abdulrazak Gurna is a 2021 Nobel laureate in literature, an English writer of Tanzanian origin. The novel "Paradise" is published in Russian for the first time.