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Oct 09, 2013uncommonreader rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
The narrator is a woman who was exiled from Sudan to London following a coup, after which her father was executed. She comes down in the world from a position of privledge to working as a maid. She tells of her relationship with her twin brother, whose behaviour is not satisfactorily explained; a radical friend; a family for whom she works and others. Unlike other stories where the immigrant deals with integration to Western society, in this novel the woman identifies herself as a Muslim, not in terms of her nationality, and it is in Britain that she becomes religious and devout. The novel seemed in some ways naive, but Aboulela tells an interesting story.