Stephanie Jane reviewed Nubian Indigo by Jamal Mahjoub
A compelling story
5 stars
I love when historical fiction can completely immerse me into a time and place that I formerly knew very little about and Jamal Mahjoub's novel, Nubian Indigo, did just that. Through various characters living along the banks of a relatively short section of the Nile river in the early 1960s, I saw the disruption and disbelief they experienced on being given the news that their twenty-seven villages and one town were to be abandoned to rising floodwaters in the name of technological progress for the rest of Egypt. For these poor, rural communities, who have owned and farmed the same land for generations, the concept of the huge dam is beyond their understanding. For rich Western universities, it's a last free-for-all to plunder as many artefacts from the area as possible before the ancient tombs and archaeological sites are submerged indefinitely. And for Argin, the local District Official promoted somewhat …
I love when historical fiction can completely immerse me into a time and place that I formerly knew very little about and Jamal Mahjoub's novel, Nubian Indigo, did just that. Through various characters living along the banks of a relatively short section of the Nile river in the early 1960s, I saw the disruption and disbelief they experienced on being given the news that their twenty-seven villages and one town were to be abandoned to rising floodwaters in the name of technological progress for the rest of Egypt. For these poor, rural communities, who have owned and farmed the same land for generations, the concept of the huge dam is beyond their understanding. For rich Western universities, it's a last free-for-all to plunder as many artefacts from the area as possible before the ancient tombs and archaeological sites are submerged indefinitely. And for Argin, the local District Official promoted somewhat above his ability and expected to make sure everything runs smoothly, it's all rather a nightmare.
Mahjoub obviously did a great amount of research in order to make Nubian Indigo a convincingly authentic novel, yet I appreciated that he also interspersed the history with almost magical aspects as well as hints of traditional fairytale for Buhen's narrative arc - a lame boy who yearns to join the crew of one of the river ferries. It's also a story within a story, within another story. The whole historical storyline might also just be a tale spun by Kuban, the President's valet, on a long train journey in a last ditch effort to turn that President's mind away from flooding Kuban's ancestral homeland, or it might be Kuban's nephew telling the tale, years after the dam's completion, to entertain a friends. This storytelling structure gave the whole work a timeless quality that really appealed to me.
I hadn't read any of Mahjoub's previous novels, but am now delighted that I took a chance on this one. It is a compelling story, but told with a lightness and humour that made it an easy read with memorable characters and evocative scenes.