Only in London

By Hanan al-Shaykh

Four strangers meet on a turbulent flight from Dubai to London: Amira, a canny Moroccan prostitute; Lamis, a 30-year old Iraqi divorcee; Nicholas, an English expert on Islamic art; and Samir, a Lebanese man who is delivering a monkey on a mission he doesn’t fully understand. Once safely on British soil, Lamis and Nicholas fall in love, Samir chases after blond British youths, and Amira reinvents herself as a princess, the better to lure clients at the best London hotels. Through the city and across cultural borders, Only in London wittily portrays the smells, sounds, and sights of London’s lively Arab neighorhoods, as well as the freedoms the city both offers and withholds from its immigrants.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Dec 18, 2007
• ISBN: 9780307427137

Hanan al-Shaykh

Hanan al-Shaykh is widely regarded as one of the foremost experts on Arab womanhood.  Her works include Women of Sand and Myrrh, The Story of Zahra, Beirut Blues and The Locust and the Bird.  Tim Supple is one of the world's leading theatre directors and creators. His widely-acclaimed works include Twelfth Night (Channel 4 film), Tales from Ovid, A Servant to Two Masters (both RSC) and a multi-lingual A Midsummer Night's Dream (Dash Arts/world tour).

Reviews for Only in London

[jayne_charles_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This novel concerns four people, three of them Arabs living in London, and an Englishman fascinated by Arabian artefacts. It looked quite promising, with its cast of interesting characters – none of the Arabs conform to stereotypes: one is a divorced woman, one a prostitute, the third is a transvestite who hangs out with a monkey. It’s hard to describe why I found it a difficult read. It isn’t badly written, and interesting things happen throughout. But I think it was the randomness of the whole thing, and the abrupt endings of some of the sections that made it a bumpy ride. The central trunk of the story sent off so many tributary branches but few had more than a few pages invested in them. I would have liked to learn more about, say, Nicholas’s parents – they were intriguing (he calls them by their first names, and his dad is a vicar and thinks it would be a good idea for him to try to convert some of his friends in the Gulf...!!??). Nicholas, too....was he supposed to be a typical Englishman? Because I’d say his sexual practices alone would make him odd in the eyes of most Brits.Not a totally positive reading experience for me, and I sense there was a deeper meaning to the whole thing that I missed. But I wouldn’t rule out reading more by this author who covers ground other authors don’t.