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9/24—Read River Spirit, Meet Author Leila Aboulela
September 24, 2023 @ 13:00 - 14:00
RSVP here.
The Markaz Book Club novel for September 2023 is River Spirit by Leila Aboulela
(from a rave review in the New York Times) “In 19th-century Sudan, with the Ottoman Empire fading and Britain gaining influence in the region, a religious leader proclaims himself the Mahdi, or the redeemer. He aims to correct the wrongs — excessive taxation, for one — of the foreign rulers. But as the revolution gains strength, and the Mahdi collects followers, his greed for power tarnishes the movement’s ideological purity. Leila Aboulela’s dazzling new novel, River Spirit, follows the course of that revolution as it turns into a new instrument of oppression.”
River Spirit is the unforgettable story of a people who, against the odds and for a brief time, gained independence from foreign rule. This is a powerful tale of corruption and unshakeable devotion – to a cause, to one’s faith and to the people who become family.
We’ll meet to talk about the book on the last Sunday in Sept., the 24th, at 1 pm Eastern/19:00 CET. Author Leila Aboulela will be joining us.
RSVP here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leila Aboulela is the first-ever winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing. She is the author of six novels — Bird Summons; The Kindness of Enemies; The Translator, a New York Times 100 Notable Books of the year; Minaret; Lyrics Alley, Fiction Winner of the Scottish Book Awards; and River Spirit, published by Saqi Books in March 2023. Her short story collection Elsewhere, Home, won the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year. Her work has been translated into 15 languages and she’s been nominated three times for the Orange Prize (now the Women’s Prize for Fiction). Leila was born in Cairo, grew up in Khartoum and moved in her mid-twenties to Scotland where she now lives.