Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

Minaret

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Leila Aboulela's American debut is a provocative, timely, and engaging novel about a young Muslim woman -- once privileged and secular in her native land and now impoverished in London -- gradually embracing her orthodox faith.

With her Muslim hijab and down-turned gaze, Najwa is invisible to most eyes, especially to the rich families whose houses she cleans in London. Twenty years ago, Najwa, then at university in Khartoum, would never have imagined that one day she would be a maid. An upper-class Westernized Sudanese, her dreams were to marry well and raise a family. But a coup forces the young woman and her family into political exile in London. Soon orphaned, she finds solace and companionship within the Muslim community. Then Najwa meets Tamer, the intense, lonely younger brother of her employer. They find a common bond in faith and slowly, silently, begin to fall in love.

Written with directness and force, Minaret is a lyric and insightful novel about Islam and an alluring glimpse into a culture Westerners are only just beginning to understand.

Language: English

Pages: 288

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat

Release: August 19, 2005

ISBN: 0802170145

ISBN 13: 9780802170149

Minaret

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Leila Aboulela's American debut is a provocative, timely, and engaging novel about a young Muslim woman -- once privileged and secular in her native land and now impoverished in London -- gradually embracing her orthodox faith.

With her Muslim hijab and down-turned gaze, Najwa is invisible to most eyes, especially to the rich families whose houses she cleans in London. Twenty years ago, Najwa, then at university in Khartoum, would never have imagined that one day she would be a maid. An upper-class Westernized Sudanese, her dreams were to marry well and raise a family. But a coup forces the young woman and her family into political exile in London. Soon orphaned, she finds solace and companionship within the Muslim community. Then Najwa meets Tamer, the intense, lonely younger brother of her employer. They find a common bond in faith and slowly, silently, begin to fall in love.

Written with directness and force, Minaret is a lyric and insightful novel about Islam and an alluring glimpse into a culture Westerners are only just beginning to understand.

Language: English

Pages: 288

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat

Release: August 19, 2005

ISBN: 0802170145

ISBN 13: 9780802170149

More books from Leila Aboulela

The Translator

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Lyrics Alley

3.7/5 ( ratings)

The Kindness of Enemies

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Elsewhere, Home

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Bird Summons

3.3/5 ( ratings)

Gods and Soldiers: The Penguin Anthology of Contemporary African Writing

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Coloured Lights

3.8/5 ( ratings)

The Museum

3.3/5 ( ratings)

Twenty Years of the Caine Prize for African Writing

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Extra Teeth - Issue One

4.6/5 ( ratings)

The 'I Am Woman' Anthology - Volume 1

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Amulets and Feathers: A Story from the collection, I Am Heathcliff

4.3/5 ( ratings)

Gulf Coast: A Journal of Fine Arts (Winter/Spring 2017)

You Don't Look British

Nagmeler Sokagi

The High Flier & Other Stories

The Poet and the Echo

River Spirit

Rate this book!

Write a review?