Dottie

by Abdulrazak Gurnah

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

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Africa, Audiobook, Literary Fiction, Novels, Tanzania

332 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Abdulrazak Gurnah was born in 1948 in Zanzibar and lives in England, where he teaches at the University of Kent. The most famous of his novels are Paradise, shortlisted for both the Booker and the Whitbread Prize; By the Sea, longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and Desertion, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021 "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents".

Reviews

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is such a stupid waste, Dottie thought. Whatever has happened to us, to Hudson and Sophie and those young men, has made us believe that we came into this world as if we were beggars, squalling and throwing tantrums, expecting those who summoned us to be dissatisfied and to give up on us. Then when this happens we say how right we were all along. You made me like this. Look at me. This is your work, and now I’ll make you pay for having been foolish enough to want me here in the first place. It was themselves they tortured most of all, she thought, then their loved ones, and all the time, while they ranted and strutted, their enemies waited at the rise of the hill to mow them down. They looked strong and healthy, with sharp, flashing smiles, and a mischievous glint in the eye. It seemed a terrible disaster to her that all the use such natural skills were put to was display and gesture.

The 3rd novel by the 2021 Nobel Prize Literature winner

From the Nobel Citation

Gurnah often allows his carefully constructed narratives to lead up to a hard-won insight. A good example is the third novel, Dottie (1990), a portrait of a Black woman of immigrant background growing up in harsh conditions in racially charged 1950’s England, and because of her mother’s silence lacking connection with her own family history. At the same time, she feels rootless in England, the country she was born and grew up in. The novel’s protagonist attempts to create her own space and identity through books and stories; reading gives her a chance to reconstruct herself. Not least names and name changes play a central role in a novel that shows Gurnah’s deep compassion and psychological adroitness, completely without sentimentality.

I am currently on a project to read all of Gurnah’s work and I found this a very distinctive read among his oeuvre for a number of reasons:

Firstly Gurnah’s work is best thought of as falling into two distinctive sets of work: The first series is his exile novels (“Pilgrims Way”, ”Admiring Silence”, “By The Sea”, “Last Gift”, “Gravel Heart” – all of which feature characters from Zanzibar exiled (for different reasons) in the UK and finding themselves no longer really belonging to either country. The second series is his African-set novels: (“Memory of Departure”, “Paradise”, “Desertion”, “Afterlives”) which are set in East Africa during the colonial era itself and which explore that era. This novel by contrast is about someone born in England – the titular Dottie (full first names Dottie Badoura Fatma) – with very limited knowledge of her background.

Secondly Gurnah’s main protagonists are almost always male (Afiya in Afterlives and more so Hannah/Maryam in “The Last Gift” being exceptions but even there as perhaps important rather than the central character) but here Dottie is the key character of the novel. I would say further that Gurnah’s writing shows a male bias – he seems most comfortable in his other novels in exploring slightly lost and also rather misogynistic male characters (in some cases with characters that today might be said to have almost Incel characteristics). But this novel, to my surprise, read like parts of it had been written by a female author – at times this felt like a novel that might have appeared on a Women’s Prize longlist.

Thirdly and related to this the novel had more of a character arc to it than many of his other novels – and in contrast to the Nobel citation I did feel that there was more sentimentality (and not just compassion) in this novel than in many of his others – it was a novel which ended in a more upbeat fashion than I expected. The contrast was particularly strong to his first two novels. I have described “Memory of Departure” as squalid and “Pilgrim’s Way” as often obscene and could not recommend either on literary merit other than to fellow Gurnah-completists (wanting to see how both of the “series” developed). However this novel although undoubtedly at times explicit and tough is I think one of the best and easiest to recommend standalone novels – although harder to fit into a study of Gurnah’s other work.

Dottie knows and knew her late mother as Sharon Balfour but also is aware later in life that her birth name was Bilkisu which she deliberately anglicised when she fled her family in Cardiff and an imminent arranged marriage for a life of single motherhood, prostitution, dereliction, ill-health and poverty. The reader gets a little more insight into her maternal grandparents – the grandfather a Pathan sailor who settles in Cardiff in the same area which many years later was the background for Nadifa Mohamed’s “The Fortune Men” (Gurnah having of course played a crucial mentoring role for Mohamed’s debut novel) , the grandmother the daughter of a Lebanese shopkeeper – Dottie has little interest in this story and neither we or the reader know anything about her father (or the father of her younger sister Sophie – although she does know the youngest sibling – Hudson – was fathered by a black American GI).

They did not even know who they were, she and Sophie and Hudson, or what people they belonged to. They knew this place, and this was all they had. There was no choice but to hang on here, and make room for themselves. What choice did they have?

Sharon and her family end in London in the late 1960s and Sharon dies leaving the still teenage Dottie to look after Sophie and the twelve year old Hudson alongside a factory job. Both are initially taken into care – Sophie (who struggles educationally) to a special school, Hudson to foster parents in Dover (in an acknowledged David Copperfield story). Dottie, with the help of her social worker who she befriends over time and who regrets her early interventions in the family, first of all rescues Sophie (who is subject to racist bullying at the school) and then Hudson (who never really recovers from being taken out of a comfortable life for the relative squalor and poverty of the families small flat in London). Both go off the rails – Hudson the most spectacularly and tragically to a life (and death) of petty crime and gang involvement, Sophie to a series of relationships and ultimately a child whose birth (and naming after her late brother) opens the book.

She packed the biscuit tin in one of the book boxes. There was nothing much in it, really. Bits of paper that attested to their existence, and round which she could weave half-made stories that gave their lives substance and significance. There was more to them than met the eye, after all. Papers and photographs and tokens of abandoned times. The defeated lives they owned did not tell the whole story, did not specify the full extent of who they were.

The book really concentrates though on Dottie’s story – as the Nobel citation implies she is on one level rootless. Unlike her siblings who either adopt an aggressive even violent anti-white stance (Hudson) or fall in with man who advance those views (Sophie) Dottie has a more nuanced view of English society – she is well aware of the pernicious racism and bias around her from a young age

They told her, those teachers or whoever they were, that all people were the same, and that she would do best to realise that she now lived in England, and she should determine to do what she could to make herself acceptable. She could do more to help herself to that end than behave in such an obstinate and dreamy way. Her whisperings might give the wrong impression, a kindly teacher warned her. They might make people believe that she could not cope. Don’t play with fire. Don’t tempt fate. When in Rome you have to do as the Romans. Pull your socks up. She heard that from them several times. We don’t do that in England, dear, they told her when her ignorance caused offence. The criticism made her feel like a sinner, or like a traitor.

But also reflects on how prevalent prejudice is (in this following her grandfather whose reaction to the racism in post World War I Cardiff is “In any case, where had he been where strangers were not treated with high-handed mockery?”

Over time though through reading (both English fiction and following newspapers) her knowledge grows – both of English culture but also of wider world events – much of the book is and her life is explicitly laid out against developments in newly independent, immediately post-colonial Africa (a key scene has an older character in a library triumphantly waving a headline about the French losing control of Algeria) or in the fight for racial equality in America (Sophie at one stage becoming obsessed with the newly elected JFK).

And against that, in what I believe is partly just her story but also, knowing Gurnah’s work, an analogy for post colonialism, she has to: come to terms with the disappointments of her own life; reflect on the ways that her adult independence is compromised from a young age; reflect on what she could have done differently with her support of Sophie and particularly Hudson or whether the disadvantages with which she started made any success their impossible; consider the extent to which she is placing her future hopes in the new generation (and the second Hudson) and/or if she should be forging her own life taking advantage of the assistance of others around her (the social worker, the factory supervisor, , an evening class teacher) each of who have their own complex issues and motivations.

By some distance the strongest of Gurnah’s early novels.

She discovered that her sketch of the world was little more than a tenuous and unstable metaphor, patchily blank and shimmery in the oddest places. What she learned made her more able to resist the feeling of unworthiness that her exposure to the English way of viewing the world had forced on her.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting novel about Dottie Balfour. Born in England. She is black and has a younger sister, Sophie, and a younger brother, Hudson. At seventeen years of age, Dottie takes on the responsibility for her brother and sister. Both had been in the care of others after their mother had died a couple of years before.

Hudson resents Dottie’s interference as he had got on well with his foster parents in Dover, England.

Dottie is well meaning and works hard to provide accommodation and food for her sister and brother. She works in a factory and during her leisure time she reads books from the library. Sophie and Hudson grow to be independent and leave Dottie’s apartment only to return later.

An interesting story about ordinary working class people struggling to live happy, fulfilling lives.

This book was first published in 1990 and was the author’s third novel. Abdulrazak Gurnah won the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature.

[Sanja_Sanjalica · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Nobel marathon rewarded me with one more gem. A story of resilience, sadness, family and racism, of a struggle to find oneself amidst all the chaos of life. Such vivid characters that feel so real and complex. Love the writing style.

[James F · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is Gurnah's third novel, after Memories of Departure and Pilgrims Way. While both of those early novels, although worth reading, are a bit awkward at times, Dottie is definitely a mature work. It tells the story of Dottie Badoura Fatma Balfour, a Black factory worker in London, still considered a "foreigner" despite being third generation English, and her two younger siblings, the somewhat retarded Sophie and the wild Hudson.

The book opens with Sophie telling Dottie that she has decided to name her newborn son Hudson after their brother, who has recently died at the age of eighteen after a troubled adolescence. The book then returns to their life from the death of their mother, young Dottie's struggle to reunite the family, the resentment of Hudson, and their problems with poverty and xenophobia. The novel catches up to the beginning about halfway through, and we see the further life of the two sisters and their relationships to each other and to various other characters, including the men they become involved with. At the end, there is a certain ambiguous hope, at least for Dottie (who may have finally learned to stand up for herself and reject the role of self-sacrificing caretaker.)

[William G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm working through all of Gurnah's books by means of audio books, which I highly recommend. I can't explain the attraction of the stories and characters exactly, but I think I'm a little better human as a result.

[LauraT · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely beautiful book, on families, on sisters, on love. On England and Africa after WWII, on coping with life with what you've got...

‘What you were saying earlier about murder,’ Estella said. ‘Some people would say that that is all we do. Since the beginning of human history we have been killing each other, and have watched while others were killed. It’s safer, in a way, to have it all made into a kind of ritual like this play, or a detective thriller. Don’t you agree? Or do you think I’m talking rubbish? Our fascination with murder is from so many different angles. To see the murderer caught, because that becomes a kind of morality play. The guilty always get their desserts, and killing people is wrong. Or because of the chase, or the battle of wits between the killer and the lawman. Perhaps also it’s a way of living out our own fantasy of being strong enough to inflict that degree of pain. Whole crowds of policemen and pathologists and solicitors and journalists bank on that. I mean that we entertain fantasies of inflicting pain . . . You think I’m exaggerating, don’t you? Well, it is also just simply true that people commit murders, many of them. So perhaps all those books and plays reflect the way we live

[Ernie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a young man teaching in London in 1965 when the Wilson Labour Government lost a bye-election after the Tory candidate used the slogan ‘If you want a nigger for your neighbour, vote Labour’. Gurnah is a British writer who builds a back story in traditional authorial narration to this shocking event, which sadly, is still relevant to our political discourse about migration.
Bilksisu is the daughter of Taimuir Khan, a World War I sailor who arrived in Cardiff during race riots. She became pregnant to a white man and flees from an arranged marriage to Carlisle where she reinvents herself as Sharon Balfour, ironically choosing that name from the newspaper coverage of the 1956 Suez war. She roams through several cities as an amateur prostitute and had two daughters, Dottie, the elder and Sophie and a son, Hudson by a black soldier who died in the war. Dottie’s story is that of the dutiful daughter trapped into caring for her mother and, after her sordid death, her siblings, but nothing in Gurnah’s telling is as traditional as that might sound.

Sophie is interested in young men and becomes increasingly promiscuous to the embarrassment of Dottie who can see that her sister is on the path to becoming like her mother, glorifying in her illiteracy and ignorance after Dottie rescues her from boarding school when she turns 18. The young Hudson was fostered out but refuses to leave his foster parents until Dottie finds support from a social worker Brenda Holly and they make the momentous decision to force Hudson to return to his siblings, bedding down in the same room behind an inadequate curtain made of old bedsheets.

Sophie becomes more curvaceous and sexually alluring, especially to the landlord of their London hovel of a single room. This character recalls the notorious landlord Rachman who bought rundown buildings in post war London and rented them out to Black immigrants, profiting from jamming them in to small, unmaintained spaces by using flimsy partitions to create damp flats that were the only rental rooms available in that period of housing shortages. However, Gurnah adds the complications to his character who is a poor version of Rachman, personally collecting the rent and, although lusting over Sophie, goes no further than taking her to the pictures and bringing flowers. He tells
Dottie that ‘they are not as black as the niggers’.

Gurnah makes Brenda a major character as he builds the difficult rehabilitation of Dottie through a regular factory job and friends at the council library. Hudson, 14 is resentful about leaving middle class life and becomes increasing violent in school, runs away and returns as a drug dealer. Both he and Sophie are frequently absent, Sophie at 18 is still illiterate and unwilling to learn. Brenda and Dottie break the cliche of the interfering do-gooder social worker and client relationship to become friends but Gurnah avoids any saccharine sentimentality as he complicates the story of Dottie’s social maturity with her resentment of the sacrifices she feels that she has to make for her siblings. Gurnah also compassionately explores her striving for a normal , loving sexual relationship with a man through several disasters. He has an old Russian Jewish Christian survivor place these events in the wider perspective of mid twentieth century life with the comment about ‘those who sought safety from the child-devouring Molochs who ruled their lands.’
I found this novel all too convincing and, although Gurnah mostly tells, rather than shows his authorial opinions unlike most writers these days, I was always engaged and interested through the compelling story lines and the complexity of his main characters.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A writer at the top of his game. Lots of themes interwoven, about identity and race, families, culture and colonialism, giving and taking, but interestingly quite a few open ends left. Which I liked.

[Bukola Akinyemi · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

First published in 1990, this was the third book written by Abdulrazak Gurnah. After reading the first two which I found a bit weird in parts, I almost regretted signing up for the completist challenge #ReadRazak but Dottie was a much more welcome experience for me.

I could relate with the main character who like me is the first born and a book lover.

We read about Dottie and her siblings living in poverty but trying to make something of their lives.

This author is obviously not one to be put in a box, he infuses information about world events and politics in the book through Dottie’s interest in reading both fiction and non fiction books.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn’t the recommended starting point on this author’s work but it was first available to me. It seems like a fine introduction because now I plan to binge whatever else I can find. I don’t usually like male authors writing in women’s voices but he nailed it. He really understood Dottie’s fears and frustrations, hopes and dreams. He had true compassion for his characters who experienced racism and oppression in mid-century London and responded in myriad ways. It was uber intense and took me longer to read than it should because I needed a break to breathe after only 10 pages at a time. The political events occurring throughout the world in the ‘40s through’60s provided context for the plot and helped me put perspective into the way people tried to survive and thrive.

[CeeJayBee]

Jesus H Christ. The entire book seemed to be made up of one conversation that was stretched out way too long. Dottie was just annoying as she ‘scowled, sighed and sneered’ her way through the story. I stuck with it because I was at the point of no return. But it’s a tough read and the characters are not in the slightest bit likeable or properly developed.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I like most about Gurnah's novels is that they acknowledge the complexity of multi-racial societies.  He's too sophisticated a thinker to be interested in the simple binaries trumpeted by so many other authors interrogating colonialism.  Dottie is a novel that explores (un)belonging, but the central character has agency.  In her journey to selfhood she encounters both individuals and a system who would oppress her because of her skin colour and her gender, but she triumphs on her own terms.  That's why I like the cover of my hardback first edition so much.  That is not the face of the young woman at the beginning of the novel when she is intimidated by the dreadful circumstances of her life.  The face of that woman on the cover is indomitable.

The narrator tells us that Dottie is descended from a Pathan called Taimur Khan, who travelled to the Persian Gulf from India and whose courage in WW2 was rewarded with UK citizenship. He married Hawa, the daughter of a Lebanese shopkeeper and their daughter Bilkisu grew up hearing these stories.  But Dottie doesn't know any of that.  Bilkisu renamed herself Sharon Balfour when as a teenager she ran away to escape an arranged marriage, only to lapse into prostitution and die young from untreated venereal disease, leaving Dottie to care for her siblings.  Dottie's sister Sophie also doesn't know who her father is, and their brother Hudson only knows that his father was a GI quartered in Carlisle during WW2.

For Dottie, Sophie and Hudson, the constant assumption that they are migrants who 'can go back where they came from' heightens their sense of unbelonging. They were born in Britain.  They are English.  They are Londoners.  But because they do not know anything about their parentage, they do not even have the consolation of a stable identity.

They did not even know who they were, she and Sophie and Hudson, or what people they belonged to. They knew this place, and this was all they had. There was no choice but to hang on here, and make room for themselves. What choice did they have? (p.170)

The multi-ethnic, multi-racial milieu of this setting is a 'melting pot' of cultures and values, but often the characters prey on each other and they are racist to each other too.  People from the sub-continent say shocking things about Jamaicans, and Jamaicans use racist labels about Africans.  An Irishman seeking solidarity with the oppressed doesn't seem to realise how offensive he is when talking about people of colour. The Syrian family of Jamil, a would-be suitor of Sharon/Bilkisu, beat her up because she was mixed race.  They threaten her and she has to flee.  Dottie's garrulous co-worker Mike Butler who fancies himself as an expert on everything, responds to her question about the persecution of Jews by saying that 'everyone's got names for everybody else, it's the chains and the whips and the ovens that stagger you.'

This is how we are, all of us, a degraded and degenerate lot, if you don't mind me saying. The history of man consists mostly of plunder and looting and murder,  That's how human beings have been, whether in China or Rome or America or Timbuktoo, and they'd be the same even if you put them on the sea-bed. (p.101)

I don't think that Gurnah is suggesting that racism is an innate human response to difference but perhaps his intention is to expose it as more virulent that we realise.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2025/08/10/d...

[anusha_reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

DOTTIE, ABDULRAZAK GURNAH

Abdulrazak Gurnah is a Tanzanian-born British writer who was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Can a mother be blamed for irresponsibility when she is a victim of hardships and has no guidance herself?

Dottie Badoura Fatima Balfour and her family live in Leeds (UK). She had learnt to be self-reliant from a very young age as her mother was always unwell. When Dottie turns eighteen, her mother passes away, leaving behind three children: Dottie, the eldest, followed by Sophie, and their youngest sibling, Hudson. Dottie works in a factory, but the younger two are taken into social care by a social worker because they are underage.

Does a sense of security and family bonds sometimes lead us to make wrong decisions? How does one determine what is right and wrong, especially at an age burdened by overwhelming responsibilities? Does turning 18 automatically mean one can take major life decisions independently, or does it take time to truly mature into adulthood? Does everyone reach mental maturity at the same pace?

Dottie is the story of a strong, resilient young woman. It portrays the struggles and hardships faced by the titular protagonist. Dottie is resolute and determined, but the story also highlights the suffering of those around her. Political uprisings and transitions form the backdrop, adding to the challenges people faced during that time.

Often, entire communities are blamed for the misdeeds of a few. The author explores these prejudices, showing how such accusations are misplaced and how understanding emerges through interaction with others. Many people, engrossed in their own struggles and difficulties, often remain unaware of the challenges faced by others.

What is home, and how does a child define their native land if they have been raised in a different country by their parents? This complex feeling is thoughtfully explored in the book.

I loved the fact that, despite not being highly educated, Dottie has a deep love for reading. She tries multiple times to read David Copperfield but, when unable to do so, settles for an abridged version. Her determination and never-give-up attitude shine through as she strives to better herself and her career, starting from a factory worker.


It is an easy read—heartrending yet beautifully narrated.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I began this book months ago, then had to set it aside before returning to finish it. And, oddly, my break seemed to coincide with Dottie's emergence from her struggle and her taking secretarial classes, getting a job and making a friend of Estella, who supported and encouraged her.

I recall the first part of the book as a pitiful account of a young woman trying to keep her family together amidst poverty and constant setbacks, which reminded me of the non-fiction book, "Evicted" by Matthew Desmond (a must-read, folks), which makes so very real what poverty looks and feels like.

I have now read all of Gurnah's novels. Dottie was the only novel to focus on women and write from a woman's perspective, though all of his novels contain female characters, and some play larger roles than others. Interestingly, though, it is the men in this novel that spin much (but not all) of the narrative--Patterson, with his dominance and sexual violence; Mr. O'Brien with his kindness in giving Dottie her job; and lastly Michael Mann, who appears at the end, possibly a boyfriend for Dottie, and has a couple of what seem to be soliloquies (though he is talking to Dottie) but are likely the opinions of Gurnah over the wars and violence in Africa and elsewhere.

I did not like the early part of the book, but the last 30 percent was better, and all in Gurnah's unique style--always a very unvarnished narrative of people struggling to become.

[Ellie Chesshire · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘You want to get to the end of the story. If the condition of our lives is not that moment in the forest that you described to me, if we don’t just have to wait until the killer finds us, then it must be about what we do, how we live. That’s what matters.’

I have read a few of Gurnah’s novels, including Paradise and Afterlives, and I’ve never really loved them. But I feel differently about Dottie. I really enjoyed this energetic, fast-paced story of a young woman of colour living in london in the 1950s/60s and trying to make her own despite all the trials and tribulations she faces. Dottie is an inspiring and nuanced character with an energy that I really enjoyed. Would highly recommend! The novel deals with poverty, family, race relations and colonialism is a neat, addictive way.

[Sarah]

I read Dottie because Gurnah just won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

The story takes place in London, after WWII, following the progress of three half-siblings of mixed ethnicity after their mother dies. Dottie is the eldest who fights to keep her family together and to shield her sister, who is developmentally-challenged, and her brother, who may be mentally ill.

It is a grim tale of about racism, poverty, condescension, and endurance. Gurnah puts Dottie's story in the context of world events and patriarchal abuse.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gurnah is certainly a gifted storyteller. From the first page I was drawn into the story of Dottie, a 17 year old black woman in England, who is thrown into adulthood when her mother dies and she is the only family to her younger sister and brother. Dottie has many trials to deal with but somehow she stays grounded, betters herself, and comes to find herself over the course of the story. Though I was a bit disappointed in the ending it reinforced that the value of life is in the living and finding yourself, not the ending.

[Baljit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unlike most of his other novels, the main character here is female. Dottie has lived through the Post WW 2 ages in a Britain rife with racism and antipathy towards colored people. Her mother was a colourful charlatans she never knew her father. She trues to keep her siblings together, but the cycle of poverty, crime, violence and oppression seem never-ending.
Amidst the changing political landscape of a once renowned Britain, now struggling to cope with an infix of migrants, we get an insight into life in the inner city for people like Dottie.

[Julie Greene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dottie and her siblings navigate life in post-WWII England, facing poverty and racism as a family of African descent. When their mother dies, leaving three teenage children orphaned, Dottie becomes the caretaker of the family. The novel is engaging and powerful. There is much tragedy but along the way Gurnah's take on the legacy of colonialism and the UK's poor treatment of those fleeing the damage its government caused in Africa is illuminating and, at times, brilliant.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I liked that it got to breathe, and we got to watch Dottie blossom slowly, even as others around her self destruct. I really enjoyed the quick references to what was happening in the world at the time to orient us, and also really liked the section on Dottie's imposter syndrome.

I will have to check out more of Gurnah's work.

[Nima Majidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the best stories that I have read in which the main protagonist and author are different genders, Gurnah's post-colonial voices weaves throughout the narrative as do the themes of family and memory, both repressed and forgotten. Dottie stands out among Gurnah's oeuvre, yet is somehow one of his most forgotten works. I look forward to exploring more of his books in the coming months.

[Jasiek Gromadzki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Osierocona nastolatka na progu dorosłości musi podejmować za dużo zbyt trudnych decyzji, zmagać się z angielskim rasizmem i seksizmem wczesnych lat 60. Bardzo dobra powieść, w której widać już eksperymenty z różnicami w relacjach o tych samych zdarzeniach w zależności od adresata, które będą główną siłą "Admiring Silence".

[bimri · Rating 2 out of 5]

England must be such a dull place! From the tale of this book. Nonetheless, Gurnah's futile efforts to depict suffering (a state): is stale of any emotions! It's such a boring read this one. Maybe it's how its set & the extravagance of effort to say something clever and profound that ruined this book. I'd rate it a one star 🌟 — but, I've reserved that right to books I thoroughly hate!

[Mary Bellamy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting novel about a young woman growing up in miserable circumstances in London after the second World War who struggles to take care of herself and her siblings. She grows a lot, but the story doesn't quite hang together for me.

[Abduljalal Muhammad Bello · Rating 2 out of 5]

Incredible but empty!

A story told from the perspective of young Dottie who despite her cheerfulness and good sense, was struggled to keep herself from sinking under the burdens of her sister's imbecility and her brother's naivety and malice.

[Shiva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful storytelling, vivid descriptions and the story of a transplant trying to find her way while battling all the realities of life is heart warming and gut wrenching at the same time. I am now addicted to what else this author has in store.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful study of a Black woman’s coming of age amidst the racism of postwar Britain, and her gradual awakening to her own right to happiness despite an impoverished childhood and young adulthood. Structured cleverly and winningly, this is a window into a society as well as a soul.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I purchased this book because Gurnah had won the Pulitzer Prize. It is a very grim tale in which it is hard to find grace. I don’t need a happy ending but it was challenging to attach to anything redeeming. I was interested in Dottie and I was pulling for to triumph.

[CALEB MWANGOME · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unselfish availability can't always be a two way street. It can just be like a mirror. The more a fragment falls off you, the more the only person you see is you. Only you. And those that you try to save from sinking, of course. Loved it.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A devastating portrait of postcolonial life in 1950s-era London. I had to steel myself every time I picked up this book to read, but couldn’t let it go, either.