Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. So Nobel Lit Prize Day is

always a scramble for us at the culture desk at NPR. We've got some background info and research done

on some of the perennial names, people toss around. You know, always the bridesmaids, never the bride,

that type of thing. But when Abdul Razak Grana won last year, I admit I wasn't super familiar with his work.

So I spent hours talking to his fans and peers and listening through some of his lectures to get his vibe.

And the big takeaway I got is that he's interested in mining the complexities of post-colonial life.

It's not as simple as just like colonizer equals bad.

That's something he gets into in this interview between him and NPR Scott Simon. It's about

Gernard's new book, After Lives. And Gernardt talks about the attraction of power and how alluring

it is for the conquered to join the conqueror. In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

A new novel takes us inside the lives of those who are often overlooked in literature and history.

They are not kings, queens, warriors, writers, or religious leaders, but people

trying to get by. In that part of East Africa, now known as Tanzania, during and after the

period in which German colonizers owned the industries and coffee farms that exploited

native peoples and often quelled uprisings with brutality.

Afterlives is Abdul Razak Gurna's first novel published in the U.S. since he won the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature.

His previous books include Paradise and By the Sea.

...