Minaret

A Novel

No cover

Leila Aboulela: Minaret (Paperback, 2005, Grove Press)

Paperback, 276 pages

English language

Published March 11, 2005 by Grove Press.

ISBN:
978-0-8021-7014-9
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OCLC Number:
59360162

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4 stars (1 review)

2 editions

Very readable

4 stars

I bought six books at the excellent Hope Association book fair back in May last year and Minaret is one of two that I hadn't got around to reading until now. I was attracted to the story by the Ali Smith quote on the front cover: "Minaret is a wonderful book ... readable, subtle and ambiguous, with a shocking clarity of voice" and by Aboulela being an #OwnVoices Muslim Sudanese author in London. It's depressingly uncommon to actually hear about women's experience of Islam directly from the women themselves so I was keen to read this positive portrayal.

The novel is indeed very readable and the font size in my paperback edition meant I zoomed through the pages faster than I had expected to do. Minaret isn't a light read though. It could simply be a story of lost privilege and thwarted love - a poor rich girl finding a …

Subjects

  • Sudanese -- Great Britain -- Fiction
  • Political refugees -- Fiction
  • Women domestics -- Fiction
  • Muslim women -- Fiction
  • Rich people -- Fiction
  • Orphans -- Fiction
  • London (England) -- Fiction