The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Gurnah, Abdulrazak. Afterlives. Penguin Random House LLC, 2022.

Abdulrazak Gurnah's novel Afterlives is set in the colonial German era of East Africa. The novel begins shortly prior to the turn of the century, and ends in the mid-1960s. The narrative is a generational tale, and traces multiple families' lives and experiences. The following summary relies upon the past tense and a primarily linear mode of explanation.

When Khalifa was in his twenties, he began working for a merchant by the name of Amur Biashara. As a young man, Khalifa's father encouraged him to invest in his education so that he might be afforded the opportunities he did not have. Khalifa took his father's advice. However, his academic and vocational endeavors took him away from his family.

Then one day, Khalifa learned that his mother had died suddenly. Khalifa was shocked in that his mother was only in her forties. He rushed back to his home village, disturbed to discover his father's depleted health. Only days later, Khalifa's father passed away, too.

When Khalifa returned to work with the merchant, he was overcome by regret, loneliness, and despair. He cursed himself for having neglected his parents, and questioned his purpose and meaning in life. Noting his employee's internal unrest, Amur arranged a marriage between Khalifa and his relative, Asha. He believed the union would help Khalifa overcome his grief.

Khalifa and Asha created a life together. Although they tried to have children, Asha miscarried multiple times. Over the years following, the couple devoted themselves to the care of others instead, particularly per Khalifa's urging.

Khalifa befriended a new young man in town by the name of Ilyas. When Khalifa learned that Ilyas was estranged from his family, he urged him to reconnect with them before it was too late. Upon returning home, Ilyas learned that his parents were dead, but that his younger sister, Afiya, was living with a couple nearby. As soon as he arrived at this couple's home, Ilyas realized they were treating Afiya like a slave.

Ilyas delivered Afiya from her imprisoning circumstances. They lived happily together for one year, during which time Afiya became acquainted with Khalifa and Asha. When another war broke out on the coast, Ilyas joined the German army known as the schutztruppe, leaving Afiya with the abusive couple again.

In the wake of Ilyas's departure, Khalifa rescued Afiya from the couple and took her in. She spent her coming of age with Khalifa and Asha.

Meanwhile, Hamza had run away from his home and joined the schutztruppe, too. Although he thought fighting in the war would give him a sense of agency, he soon discovered that the opposite was true.

At the end of the war, Hamza returned to his home village. He began working for the merchant Nassor, Amur's son, for whom Khalifa also worked. Realizing Hamza had no family and no home, Khalifa invited him to stay on his property.

Over the course of the following months and years, Hamza became a close friend of Khalifa's. In time, Hamza and Afiya also fell in love and married. They continued living in the same house. Afiya eventually gave birth to a baby boy who they named Ilyas after her brother.

Because Afiya's brother never returned from the war and the family received no word of his fate, Afiya was haunted by Ilyas's disappearance. As her son Ilyas grew up, he also suffered from internal unrest. Hamza worried that he had inherited his mother's sorrow and his traumas from the war.

Years later, once Ilyas grew up and left home, he traveled to Germany. After extensive research, he uncovered the truth of his uncle Ilyas's fate. He died in a concentration camp during World War II.