Minaret - Softcover

Aboulela, Leila

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802170145 ISBN 13: 9780802170149

Publisher: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005

Synopsis

Leila Aboulela's American debut is a provocative, timely, and engaging novel about a young Muslim woman -- once privileged and secular in her native land and now impoverished in London -- gradually embracing her orthodox faith. With her Muslim hijab and down-turned gaze, Najwa is invisible to most eyes, especially to the rich families whose houses she cleans in London. Twenty years ago, Najwa, then at university in Khartoum, would never have imagined that one day she would be a maid. An upper-class Westernized Sudanese, her dreams were to marry well and raise a family. But a coup forces the young woman and her family into political exile in London. Soon orphaned, she finds solace and companionship within the Muslim community. Then Najwa meets Tamer, the intense, lonely younger brother of her employer. They find a common bond in faith and slowly, silently, begin to fall in love. Written with directness and force, Minaret is a lyric and insightful novel about Islam and an alluring glimpse into a culture Westerners are only just beginning to understand.

About this title

Review:

Praise for The Translator: 'A story of love and faith all the more moving for the restraint with which it is written' J. M. Coetzee 'A novel that tries to give Muslims their due Aboulela shows the rich possibilities of living in the West with different, non-Western, ways of knowing and thinking' Sunday Herald Praise for Coloured Lights: 'Moving, gentle, ironic, quietly angry and beautifully written' Ben Okri 'This is the modern female voice fresh, diverse, challenging, uninhibited' Rachel Cusk

About the Author:

Leila Aboulela was born in 1964 and grew up in Khartoum. She is the author of two books: a novel, The Translator which was published to critical acclaim in 1999 and a book of short stories, Coloured Lights published in 2000. Leila Aboulela lives between Djakarta and Aberdeen.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0802170145
• ISBN 13: 9780802170149
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288