The Kindness of Enemies

October 5, 2015
Aboulela, winner of the Caine Prize, pens an ambitious tri-continental story covering more than 200 years and tackling themes of Islamic faith, personal heritage, and the disparity between academic and personal reconstructions of historic events. The book has three clearly defined narrative sections, the first of which focuses on the protagonist, Natasha, a history professor in Scotland, as she researches and unravels the history of real-life 19th-century Muslim leader Imam Shamil and his role as a leader in the Caucasian War. To save his besieged city, Shamil must give up his son, Jamaleldin, to the attacking Russian army as a conciliatory gesture. The second narrative follows Jamaleldin growing up among the Russians, and his assimilation into their culture. In the third narrative, Natasha confronts her Muslim identity as she spends time with Shamil’s descendants: a precocious student, Oz, who is active in the young Islamic group at Natasha’s university, and his actress mother, Malak. Though the book takes time to gain its footing, Aboulela’s (Lyrics Alley) is a nuanced story of identity and sense of place. Agent: Stephanie Cabot, the Gernert Company.

October 1, 2015
The award-winning author of Lyrics Alley (2011) and The Translator (2006) explores the role of old conflicts in the rise of modern extremism]and in the struggle against it. A professor of history, Natasha Wilson is researching the life of Imam Shamil, a 19th-century chieftain who led Muslim tribes against the Russians. Her favorite student, Oz, is one of the imam's descendants. Natasha has a Russian mother and a Sudanese father; her original last name was Hussein. Oz's given name is Osama. That these characters have names that are unsayable in Great Britain in 2010]where their narrative is set]is a deft symbol for the kinds of negotiations they must make in a post-9/11 world and something that brings the two together. But Natasha and Oz are as different as they are similar, and one of Aboulela's great achievements here is her deft elucidation of the diversity within what so many of us think of simply as "Islam." Using the contemporary narrative as a framing device, Aboulela weaves in stories from Czarist St. Petersburg and the battlefields of the Caucasus. Her thoughtful, empathetic portraits of a Georgian princess abducted by Shamil and of Shamil's son, hostage at the imperial court of Nicholas I, show that the existential crises faced by two people of Muslim heritage in contemporary Aberdeen are not entirely new. Indeed, Aboulela makes it clear not only that the current conflict between East and West has old roots, but also that "East" and "West" are little more than convenient fictions. None of this is to say that this novel is a purely didactic exercise. Aboulela is a great storyteller, and she writers with clarity and elegance. A pleasurable and engaging read for fans of both contemporary and historical fiction.

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November 1, 2015
In the mid-nineteenth century, Imam Shamil, one of the most successful rebels of the colonial age, held his ground against the invading Russian forces in the Caucasus. Hundreds of years later, his descendant, Oz Osama Raja, faces challenges of his own in contemporary Scotland. Somewhat of a cultural misfit, he finds succor in religion, a stance that many view as a potential symptom of radicalization. Connecting these disparate threads together is Natasha Hussein Wilson, a young professor of mixed Russian Sudanese heritage, whose research on Imam Shamil leads her to connect the dots and paint what proves to be a rather complex picture. Aboulela (Lyrics Alley, 2011) seamlessly moves between 2010 Scotland and the stories set in the nineteenth century and shows how complex geopolitical processes can lead to unlikely alliances. Equally, Aboulela dissects the phenomenon of personhood carved as it is by time and place. Stressing the importance of cultural osmosis, this is an astute exploration of the fluidity of identity that proves just how ineffective a check-the-boxes approach to the issue can truly be.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

December 1, 2015

What's in a name? For those of Muslim heritage trying to assimilate in Great Britain after 9/11, quite a bit, according to this new novel about identity and acculturation from Aboulela. Part Russian and part Sudanese, history professor Natasha Hussein legally changes her name. Her standout student Osama Raja prefers to be called Oz. Natasha is researching the life of Shamil, Imam of Dagestan, leader of an insurrection against Russian expansionism in the Caucasus in the 1800s. After delivering a lecture about Shamil, Natasha discovers that Oz's family is descended from the Muslim chieftain and has information to share. Aboulela then transports readers to tsarist Russia, the seat of enlightenment, and to the mountains of Georgia and Dagestan, where fighting between Muslim separatists and Russian sympathizers has devastated Shamil's ranks. The author breathes real life into these historical characters: Shamil; his son Jamaleldin, who, as a hostage, is raised in luxurious Saint Petersburg far from his Islamic culture and language; and the Christian princess Anna, a hostage in Shamil's austere household. VERDICT Winner of the first Caine Prize for African writing, Aboulela (Minaret; Lyrics Alley) challenges readers with thought-provoking ideas about the meaning of jihad, then and now, and demonstrates how ignorance of another's beliefs prohibits us from embracing our common humanity. [See Prepub Alert, 7/27/15.]--Sally Bissell, formerly with Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2015

Sudanese-born, Scotland-based Aboulela keeps turning out prize-worthy work, having won the Caine Prize for African Writing for a story from the collection Coloured Lights and the a Scottish Book Award for the recent Lyrics Alley. Here, half-Russian, half-Sudanese history professor Natasha is delighted to learn that her best student is descended from Imam Shamil, leader of Muslim resistance to Russian dominance in the 19th-century Caucasus.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.