Category: Literary
Country: United Kingdom

About

Leila Aboulela’s second novel Minaret tells the story of Najwa, an upper-class Sudanese woman, and the challenges she faces after moving from Sudan to the United Kingdom. 

Growing up in Khartoum, Najwa flees to London with her family after the coup of 1985 which led to her father’s arrest and execution. The story then unfolds as family problems leave Najwa by herself as she works through the struggles of work, life and love. Two love affairs throughout the novel, one in Khartoum and one in London, lead Najwa to deepen her religious faith. One of the points Aboulela’s makes clear in her novel, and expressed in an interview with the Observer, is her belief that religious identity provides more stability than national identity, ‘I can carry [religion] with me wherever I go, whereas the other things can easily be taken away from me.’

Leila Aboulela was raised in Sudan and moved to London for her Masters. She and her family then moved to Scotland where they lived for several years before moving again to Dubai. She has written two other novels, The Translator (1999), and The Museum as well as a collection of short stories in The Coloured Lights (2001) and was awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2000.