First reactions | Abdulrazak Gurnah, Nobel Prize in Literature 2021 | Telephone interview

“As if there isn’t enough to go around” – “A kind of miserliness,” is how Abdulrazak Gurnah describes the attitude of some in Europe to refugees. After all, he says, “Europeans streaming out into the world is nothing new” and he suggests those seeking succour also be seen as “talented, energetic people, who have something to give.” In this brief conversation with Adam Smith, recorded just after he had heard the news, his surprise at receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature is evident. “I was just thinking ‘I wonder who’ll get it’”, says Gurnah: “I thought it was a prank, I really did.”

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