Nobel laureate writer Abdulrazak Gurnah, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021, discussed his childhood, education and writings at a session titled “Desertion” on Sunday, the last day of Dhaka Lit Festival.
He said that he did not even get books to read as a child. He satiated his appetite for reading from school textbooks. He also started writing during his student life. But he had no idea about how to publish his writings.
Conducted by Alexandra Pringle, the editor of several of his book, the session was held at AKSB Auditorium in Bangla Academy.
Abdulrazak Gurnah said: "When my desire to read arose as a child, books were very expensive. The practice of buying books was not popular back then. I used to read only those that were available in school.”
“I had typhoid when I was 10 years old. This disease was not very easy to treat back then. I was hospitalized and had to stay there for about three months. I read the school books while undergoing treatment over there. That's how my desire of reading arose,” he said.
Talking about his education and reading habits, Gurnah said: “I started studying in a government school from fifth grade. I used to go to another school for learning Quran. One good aspect of this school was that after finishing the entire Holy Quran, they used to take an examination. Those who passed the exam were called a graduate. Perhaps because of my special talent, I graduated twice. I was only nine years old at that time.”
However, Gurnah always liked to write stories. Regarding his writing habit, he said: “When I started writing I did not think of them as writing. I basically wrote from my own understanding. I used to write what I saw. Later, I started writing keeping in mind what a reader might feel interested to read. But I had no idea about how to publish my writings at first.”