How does Gurnah use narrative to explore colonialism?
I approach these vast, often brutal historical forces not through sweeping generalizations, but through the intimate details of individual lives, through stories that are often told in fragments or passed down by word of mouth. Let me tell you a story about that. Consider the characters in *Afterlives*; their journeys are shaped by forces far beyond their immediate control, by the machinations of empires and the imposition of new orders. By focusing on their predicaments, their small acts of resilience or capitulation, the larger historical narrative emerges organically. The silence between words, the hesitations, the things left unsaid in my novels, these are often where the true weight of historical experience is felt.
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