Lyrics Alley

January 24, 2011
Aboulela's third novel, inspired by the life of her uncle, the poet Hassan Awad Aboulela, offers a delightfully quixotic view of northern Sudan in the 1950s on the brink of its independence from Britain and Egypt. Nur is the favored son of the wealthy Abuzeid family, destined to take over the family business, until he is severely injured in an accident. Mahmoud, Nur's father, is both optimist and pragmatist, eager to embrace contemporary mores yet firmly rooted to his homeland. Mahmoud's two wives—Nur's deeply traditional and veiled mother, Waheeba, and Nabilah, a young and homesick Egyptian—have conflicts that swell and erupt in both predictable and surprising ways. The characters are lovingly and precisely rendered, and Aboulela (The Translator) describes the impact of Nur's disability with keen detail and noteworthy empathy. Though the novel offers few glimpses into life outside the Abuzeid's sheltered enclave, paying scant attention to the history and turmoil of an era that left Sudan in a lengthy civil war, Aboulela provides fine insight into the practice of Islam, especially through the children's tutor's thoughts and words, as well as a thoroughly engaging if romanticized exploration of the universal tensions between modernity and tradition, commerce and art, faith and doubt.

Starred review from October 15, 2010

This breakthrough novel by the author of Minaret and The Translator recounts the story of the Abuzeid family of Sudan--and a country on the brink of change in the 1950s as British rule nears its end. The Abuzeids are a wealthy, powerful clan, but they are not immune to the conflict between the traditions of the past and the pull of modernization. This struggle is most evident in the animosity between the two wives of patriarch Mahmoud--the Sudanese Waheeba, who values the old ways, and the Egyptian-born Nabilah, who feels suffocated by village life--and in the desires of Mahmoud's niece, Soraya, for both marriage and career. These conflicts erupt when Mahmoud's son, Nur, suffers a catastrophic injury. Somehow, despite great pain, these characters learn to make personal sacrifices and find a way to compromise. Their stories, revealed through the novel's multiple points of view, are real, compelling, and ultimately moving. VERDICT Highly recommended for readers who enjoy family sagas set against a political backdrop, such as Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun. [See "Prepub Exploded," BookSmack!, 9/16/10.]--Evelyn Beck, Piedmont Technical Coll., Greenwood, SC

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2011
Aboulela is a prizewinning novelist who was born in Khartoum, Sudan, and currently lives in Qatar. This novel traces the trials and tribulations of a wealthy, semi-Westernized Sudanese clanthe Abuzeidsas they strive to cope with domestic turmoil as well as the transition to political independence from Great Britain in the 1950s. The familys wealth, remarkably, has been accumulated largely via domestic commerce independent of British control, so postindependence prosperity seems likely. Then a crippling accident to the young heir apparent to the family business begins a series of setbacks; the efforts of individual characters to cope with these disasters form the core of the narrative. Aboulela writes well in English, sometimes too well, as her flowery prose is sometimes excessive. Still, she creates interesting characters, knows how to manage dramatic tension, and effectively conveys a sense of a once-comfortable, insular existence slowly crumbling under the strain of events that seem beyond control. This is a well-done family saga that should appeal to general readers and those familiar with the places and period that mold the setting of the story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

November 1, 2010

A wealthy Muslim family in 1950s Sudan must deal with the challenges--and opportunities--of a changing world.

Director of a successful trading company, Mahmoud Abuzeid has an enviable, if complicated life. With two wives and four children, he straddles two worlds, insulated by his money and influence. His first wife Hajjah Waheeba is a traditional--and illiterate--Sudanese woman who is happy to remain in the family compound. Nabilah, his much-younger Egyptian-born second wife, yearns for the cosmopolitan attractions of her native Cairo. Her sophistication and intelligence represent the future to Mahmoud, who prefers her company. Waheeba's son Nur, the family heir-apparent, has progressive tendencies like his father, although he is happily betrothed to his teenage cousin Soraya. The two are sweetly in love, but their future looks bleak after Nur is paralyzed during a swimming accident. Reluctant to bind his niece to an invalid, Mahmoud insists they break it off. Soraya, who continues to have feelings for Nur, throws herself into her studies, even enrolling in medical school. But eventually she agrees to marry Nur's best friend Tuf Tuf. The news breaks Nur's heart but ignites his creativity, leading him to become an in-demand poet and lyricist for popular musicians--a move which rankles the more conservative family members. Meanwhile, tensions between the two wives reach the breaking point when Waheeba arranges a secret circumcision for Nabilah's six-year-old daughter Ferial, a custom Nabilah (and Mahmoud) find barbaric. This subsequently drives a wedge between Mahmoud and both his women, as he struggles to do the right thing for his family, especially Nur, who depends on the care of his mother. And all of this unfolds as Sudan struggles for independence from Britain. Rich in detail and generous in spirit toward its complex characters, this concise follow-up to The Translator (2006) showcases Aboulela's talent for connecting political and personal upheaval.

Elegantly written family epic that brings to mind Naguib Mahfouz's The Cairo Trilogy.

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