"I grew up in a multilingual culture. We were open to influences from Saudi Arabia, India, Malaya and even from China. We were part of a kind of Indian Ocean cosmopolitan web. The language we spoke in an everyday way, was intermingled as well with all of these words. So, when I come to writing, sometimes there isn't an exact word in English, so I substitute it," says Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gunrah about his writing style and use of words from other languages.
