The last gift - Abdulrazak Gurnah

One day, long beforethe troubles, he slipped away without saying a word to anyone and never wentback. And then another day, forty three years later, he collapsed just insidethe front door of his house in a small English town. It was late in the daywhen it happened, on his way home after work, but it was also late in the dayaltogether. He had left things for too long and there was no one to blame forit but himself.

Abbas has never told anyone about his past -before he was a sailor on the high seas, before he met his wife Maryam outsidea Boots in Exeter, before they settled into a quiet life in Norwich with theirchildren, Jamal and Hanna. Now, at the age of sixty-three, he suffers acollapse that renders him bedbound and unable to speak about things he thoughthe would one day have to.

Jamal and Hanna have grown up and gone outinto the world. They were both born in England but cannot shake a sense ofapartness. Hanna calls herself Anna now, and has just moved to a new city to benear her boyfriend. She feels the relationship is headed somewhere serious, butthe words have not yet been spoken out loud. Jamal, the listener of the family,moves into a student house and is captivated by a young woman with dark-blueeyes and her own, complex story to tell. Abbas's illness forces both childrenhome, to the dark silences of their father and the fretful capability of theirmother Maryam, who began life as a foundling and has never thought to findherself, until now.