The Gunny Sack

Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book

From the author of the acclaimed The Assassin’s Song, a story of a family’s legacy and history in changing East Africa

Far away from the coastal Dar es Salaam of his childhood, Salim Juma inherits an ancient gunny sack which belonged to his mystical great-aunt Ji Bai. Inside the sack he discovers the past. Its relics and artefacts bring with them the lives, loves and betrayals of Salim’s Indian great-grandfather, Dhanji Govindji, and his extensive family, releasing in tantalizing pieces the dark history of this immigrant family in a changing, modernizing East Africa.

Set in what are now the countries of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, The Gunny Sack beautifully and seamlessly interweaves the intimate details of family life and the decisive public events that shaped nearly a century of tumultuous history in a place where a dozen cultures met and mingled. Raw and powerful, full of pathos and humour, M.G. Vassanji’s debut novel, first published in 1991, marked the arrival of one of the finest storytellers in the English language.

‘An exhilarating story’—Times Literary Supplement

‘A fantastic array of characters…a memorable and poignant voyage’—Globe and Mail

‘Vassanji’s prose is simple and evocative, with a light touch he recreates places and times, deploying flashes of colour with a careful attention to detail’—Financial Times (UK)