Recommendations from our site
“It’s a novel about the clash of cultures, the intermixture of cultures. It’s a novel about what happens to a man, or two men, when they leave their village and go north, to England, the land where the fish die of cold, and get a western education, and some of the dangers of that. It’s a very strange and very complex novel” Read more...
“It’s a masterpiece. Probably the best Arabic novel of the 20th century. Subtle, dark and deeply ironic.” Read more...
Mathias Enard on The ‘Orient’ and Orientalism
Mathias Enard, Novelist
“Family structures, value systems, how a person’s sense of belonging changes, all of these are themes that Salih touched on and that many Arabs who have had rich experiences with the West can relate to. There are many aspects in most Islamic societies that would fly against some of the values that any liberal would probably advocate. How do Arab liberals then face such situations?” Read more...
The best books on The Arab World
Tarek Osman, Foreign Correspondent
“I love the title. It’s about a Sudanese man who has lived in England and been educated at Oxford and he goes back to his village and meets a stranger there, Mustafa, who has also been to England. The narrator is not named. It’s about return and what happens when you make that journey. Really, once you’ve left you can never come back, even if you do go back.” Read more...
Ellah Allfrey, Literary Scholar
