The spellbinding new novel from New York Times Notable Author and
Caine Prize winner Leila Aboulela about an embattled young woman's
coming of age during the Mahdist War in 19th century Sudan.
Leila Aboulela, hailed as "a versatile prose stylist" (New York Times)
has also been praised by J.M. Coetzee, Ali Smith, and Ben Okri, among
others, for her rich and nuanced novels depicting Islamic spiritual and
political life. Her new novel is an enchanting narrative of the years
leading up to the British conquest of Sudan in 1898, and a deeply human
look at the tensions between Britain and Sudan, Christianity and Islam,
colonizer and colonized. In River Spirit, Aboulela gives us the
unforgettable story of a people who--against the odds and for a brief
time--gained independence from foreign rule through their willpower,
subterfuge, and sacrifice.
When Akuany and her brother Bol are orphaned in a village raid in South
Sudan, they're taken in by a young merchant Yaseen who promises to care
for them, a vow that tethers him to Akuany through their adulthood. As a
revolutionary leader rises to power - the self-proclaimed Mahdi,
prophesied redeemer of Islam - Sudan begins to slip from the grasp of
Ottoman rule, and everyone must choose a side. A scholar of the Qur'an,
Yaseen feels beholden to stand against this false Mahdi, even as his
choice splinters his family. Meanwhile, Akuany moves through her young
adulthood and across the country alone, sold and traded from house to
house, with Yaseen as her inconsistent lifeline. Everything each of them
is striving for - love, freedom, safety - is all on the line in the
fight for Sudan.
Through the voices of seven men and women whose fates grow inextricably
linked, Aboulela's latest novel illuminates a fraught and bloody
reckoning with the history of a people caught in the crosshairs of
imperialism. River Spirit is a powerful tale of corruption, coming of
age, and unshakeable devotion - to a cause, to one's faith, and to the
people who become family.
