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Minaret
Minaret: A Novel | Leila Aboulela
8 posts | 9 read | 3 to read
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.
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Tove_Reads
Minaret: A Novel | Leila Aboulela
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Pickpick

Najwa is an extremely privileged young woman living in Khartoum. Her father is an important government man, a government well-known for corruption and other questionable things. They have many Ethiopian servants at home, and life is easy. Suddenly the government is overthrown, her father is about to lose his life, and the rest of the family emigrates to London. #Sudan #Readingtheworld

Tove_Reads I enjoyed reading a book filled with so many contradictions, new versus old, tradition versus modern, as well as first living as a rich person in Muslim Sudan. and then as a poor person in liberal Christian England. This book explains the differences in an interesting and good way, and I would definitely recommend this book to readers who would like to understand these differences better. It is a well-written fast read, and a good, accurate. 4y
Insightsintobooks I really liked this book when I read it. 4y
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Tove_Reads
Minaret: A Novel | Leila Aboulela
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Just got more books, because I was running low... 😂🤣🤪 Four new books for my #readingtheworld challenge! #Sudan #SriLanka #Samoa #Seychelles I‘ve gotten far in my challenge, not many letters after S!

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Insightsintobooks
Minaret: A Novel | Leila Aboulela
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mimi07abdi
Minaret: A Novel | Leila Aboulela
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Pickpick

This book has so much love and passion in each word written. Madam aboulela walks as through the life of a najwa who comes from money and ends up working is a househelp in London. She walks us through how she found solace in Quran and the mosque. Najwa also shows us sudan in the 80's, I must say I fell in love with the place... #mustread I have to say

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mcausten_sister
Minaret: A Novel | Leila Aboulela
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When I finished this book i gave it a so-so rating. The writing was simple, the non-linear set up, and the way Nawja makes you uncomfortable was a big turn off for liking the book. However, the more we have discussed the book and how it shows you a variety if religious experiences in Islam and immigration, the more i realize that this is an important novel. Islam is not something that is usually portrayed in a humanized light like this.

#BritLit

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mcausten_sister
Minaret: A Novel | Leila Aboulela
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Me, who has about 200 pages to read by 11:30 am tomorrow.
Them: "hey, you wanna go-"
Me: "no"
Them: "hey, you want to do-"
Me: "No"
Them: "hey, you want to hang-"
Me: "NO"

#collegeproblems #Coffee #INeedMoreWater

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mcausten_sister
Minaret: A Novel | Leila Aboulela
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The next book for my British Women Writers class! Im finding the writing fairly simple, but the story is extremely promising. I read Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi last semester, which takes place in the same time frame, and Im glad I did because they pair well together.

#BritLit #Minaret #LeilaAboulela #WVU

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halleycat
Minaret: A Novel | Leila Aboulela
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Excellent & paced & revelatory on different levels. Yeah!