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The first new collection of stories from the New York Times Notable author since winning the Caine Prize, Elsewhere, Home offers a rich tableau of life as an immigrant abroad, attempting to navigate the conflicts of assimilation and difference in an unfamiliar world.
Since her award-winning debut novel, Minaret, Leila Aboulela has been praised by J.M. Coetzee, Ali Smith, Aminatta Forna, and Anthony Marra among others for her rich and nuanced depictions of Islamic spiritual and political life. Her latest collection, Elsewhere, Home, draws us ineluctably into the lives of immigrants at home and abroad as they forge new identities and reshape old ones.
A young woman’s encounter with a former classmate elicits painful reminders of her former life in Khartoum. A wealthy young Sudanese woman studying in Aberdeen begins an unlikely friendship with one of her Scottish classmates. A woman experiences an evolving relationship to her favorite writer, whose portrait of their shared culture both reflects and conflicts with her own sense of identity.
Shuttling between the dusty, sun-baked streets of Khartoum and the university halls and cramped apartments of Aberdeen and London, Elsewhere, Home explores, with subtlety and restraint, the profound feelings of yearning, loss, and alienation that come with leaving one’s homeland in pursuit of a different life.
Praise for Elsewhere, Home
Shortlisted for the 2018 Saltire Literary Award
“Each story is earnest, engrossing, holding surprising depth for tales so compact. Aboulela confronts and dissects Western and African stereotypes of Islam, Muslims, and immigrants, and beautifully renders the more universal challenge of cultural homelessness."—Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
“A yearning for home tugs at the souls of Aboulela’s characters in this beautiful and desolate collection…There is so much quiet brilliance [here]."—Guardian
“A lovely collection of short stories about love, loneliness and spirituality.”—Nadiya Hussein, Good Housekeeping
“Elsewhere, Home is a rich and poignant reflection of a Britain built as ever from multiple perspectives and starting points…These beautifully focused tales of Khartoum, Edinburgh, London, Cairo and beyond are a delight.”—A.L. Kennedy
“[Aboulela] is one of the best short story writers alive. Publishing her at Granta Magazine and Freeman’s has been one of the highlights of my life as an editor.”—John Freeman
"Exquisite fiction. There are gems here, elegantly cut, polished and framed. Luminous.”—Fadia Faqir
“Full of elegance, tenderness and the small vulnerabilities that make up our lives.”—Roma Tearne
Praise for The Kindness of Enemies
“Aboulela has written a book for grownups…that speaks more forcefully than a thousand opinion pieces…timeless.”—Anthony Marra, San Francisco Chronicle
“An absorbing novel…reminds us of the complexity of the web woven by those threads of faith, nationality, politics and history.”—New York Times Book Review
“A rich, multilayered story…compelling.”—The Washington Post
“Radiant with historical detail and vivid descriptions…an invitation to see identity as more variegated than the either/or distillations of the Global War on Terror.”—Los Angeles Review of Books
LEILA ABOULELA is the first ever winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing. Her novels include The Kindness of Enemies, The Translator (longlisted for the Orange Prize), Minaret and Lyrics Alley, which was Fiction Winner of the Scottish Book Awards. Her work has been translated into fifteen languages. She grew up in Khartoum, Sudan, and now lives in Aberdeen, Scotland.