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Dottie

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About this listen

 Bloomsbury presents Dottie by Abdulrazak Gurnah, read by Isabel Adomakoh Young.

By the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021

A searing tale of a young woman discovering her troubled family history and cultural past

‘Gurnah writes with wonderful insight about family relationships and he folds in the layers of history with elegance and warmth’ The Times

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Dottie Badoura Fatma Balfour finds solace amidst the squalor of her childhood by spinning warm tales of affection about her beautiful names. But she knows nothing of their origins, and little of her family history – or the abuse her ancestors suffered as they made their home in Britain.

At seventeen, she takes on the burden of responsibility for her brother and sister and is obsessed with keeping the family together. However, as Sophie, lumpen yet voluptuous, drifts away, and the confused Hudson is absorbed into the world of crime, Dottie is forced to consider her own needs. Building on her fragmented, tantalising memories, she begins to clear a path through life, gradually gathering the confidence to take risks, to forge friendships and to challenge the labels that have been forced upon her.©1990 Abdulrazak Gurnah (P)2022 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Fiction World Literature

Critic reviews

"Gurnah is a master storyteller." (Aminatta Forna, Financial Times)

"[A] captivating storyteller, with a voice both lyrical and mordant, and an oeuvre haunted by memory and loss. His intricate novels of arrival and departure...reveal, with flashes of acerbic humour, the lingering ties that bind continents, and how competing versions of history collide." (Guardian)

"Gurnah writes with wonderful insight about family relationships and he folds in the layers of history with elegance and warmth." (The Times)
All stars
Most relevant
I have read about 10 of Gurnah’s novels and I thoroughly enjoyed them all. Somehow this one did not have the same appeal for me. Perhaps it was because I did not find any of the characters very appealing. Even the character of Dottie, whilst admirable in some respects, seemed to be on an unfinished journey. One thing I did appreciate was the way in which factual historical events are introduced to give more context to the story.

Disappointing

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