Sharjah24 – AFP: Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah on Friday pledged to keep speaking out on migration and other hotly-contested issues, branding Brexit "a mistake" and European governments' policies "inhumane".
The 72-year-old novelist, whose decades-spanning body of work is rooted in colonialism and immigration, landed literature's top award Thursday for his unflinching portrayal of their effects on the refugee experience.
"I write about these conditions because I want to write about human interactions and... what is it that people go through when they are reconstructing lives," he told reporters at a news conference in London.
"I didn't know it was going to happen," he said of scooping the accolade. "You write the best you can, and you hope it will succeed and do well."
But the acclaimed author of 10 novels and several short stories was at pains to point out he would keep speaking candidly on the issues that have shaped his work and world view.
"I'm speaking because this is how I would speak... whether I had won the Nobel prize or not. I'm not playing a role, I'm saying what I think."
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