Lyrics Alley

By Leila Aboulela

In 1950s Sudan, the powerful and sprawling Abuzeid dynasty has amassed a fortune through their trading firm, with Mahmoud Bey at its helm. But when Mahmoud’s son, Nur, the handsome heir to his business empire, suffers a debilitating accident, the family is suddenly divided in the face of an uncertain future.

As British rule nears its end, Sudan is torn between modernizing influences and the call of traditions past—a conflict reflected in the growing tensions between Mahmoud’s two wives: the younger, Nabilah, longs to return to Egypt and escape the dust of “backward-looking” Sudan; and Waheeba, who lives traditionally in the confines of her open-air kitchen. It is not until Nur begins to assert himself outside the strict cultural limits of his parents that both his own spirit and the frayed bonds of his family can begin to mend.

Moving from the alleys of Sudan to cosmopolitan Cairo and a decimated post-colonial Britain, Lyrics Alley is a sweeping tale of desire and loss, faith, despair and reconciliation. It is one of the most accomplished and evocative portraits ever written about Sudanese society at the time of independence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Mar 8, 2011
• ISBN: 9781443405010

Leila Aboulela

Leila Aboulela was born in Cairo, grew up in Khartoum and moved to Aberdeen in her mid-twenties. She is the author of five novels, Bird Summons, The Translator, a New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year, The Kindness of Enemies, Minaret and Lyrics Alley, Fiction Winner of the Scottish Book Awards. She was the first winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, and her short story collection, Elsewhere, Home, won the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award. Her work has been translated into fifteen languages and she was longlisted three times for the Orange Prize for Fiction (now the Women’s Prize). Her plays The Insider, The Mystic Life and others were broadcast on BBC Radio, and her fiction included in publications such as Freeman’s, Granta and Harper’s Magazine.

Reviews for Lyrics Alley

[bookishjojo · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Lyrics Alley has some very beautiful moments but is a disjointed novel that never really pulls it together by the end. It is a quick and compelling story but the reasons for being pulled into the novel - the setting, the tragedy the characters, wondering about the outcomes - end up being less than fully realized. I was left dissatisfied, unfortunately, yet I am open to reading more by this author. I wonder, though, given the setting and political climate of the time (Sudan & Egypt, 1951 & 1952) if this disjointed feeling was created by the author on purpose?? But I just really can't be sure.

[dubaireader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well worth reading.I really enjoyed this novel, set in Sudan and Egypt in the 1950s.It covers a lot of ground, but the story at the centre is the true relationship between Sudan's famous poet and songwriter, Hassan Awad Aboulela and his childhood sweetheart, represented as Nur and Soraya in the novel. They were cousins, betrothed from a young age, until a serious accident changed everything. Hassan Awad Aboulela was Leila Aboulela's uncle and although he died before she was born, he remained quite a family tradition.The remaining characters are fictional, two very different wives for Nur's father - traditional, Waheeba from Sudan and fashionable Nabilah from Egypt. There is a lot of animosity between these two women, which comes to a head through Nabilah's daughter.On the male side of the family is the patriach, Mahmoud, a forceful businessman, and his other son, Nassir, and Mahmoud's brother and business partner, Idris. There is also an interesting character, Ustaz Badr, a devout Muslim, who becomes Nur's tutor and advisor, plus Ustaz Badr's troublesome brother.With this cast of thousands, I found the family tree at the beginning was a great help.There is an interesting diversion into the opinions on women being allowed to wear spectacles, which was hugely frowned on by some members of such circles and all of these events are woven into the politics of a Sudan ruled by both Egypt and Britain, as it starts to exert its independance.This was a book group read and made for an interesting evening's discussion.