The Translator: Book summary and reviews of The Translator by Leila Aboulela

The Translator Summary

Sammar is a young Sudanese widow working as an Arabic translator in a university department. Numb with grief after losing her husband, and estranged from her young son, she is adrift -an exile in a hostile country. Things change when she falls in love with Rae - but, twice divorced and a self-proclaimed cynic, he is totally different from Sammar: secular, worldly, and not a Muslim.

The Translator Reviews

"Aboulela's perceptive description of Sammar's aching loss of both Rae and her profession leaves an indelible impression, as does the conclusion of this beautifully crafted novel." - Booklist.

"With authentic detail and insight into both cultures, Aboulela painstakingly constructs a truly transformative denouement. " - PW.

"A strikingly poised, cherishable novel. " - Kirkus.

"Her writing is restrained and evocative, subtle and graceful." - Library Journal.

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Leila Aboulela Author Biography

Leila Aboulela has published two books in England that have been highly praised. Her work has been long-listed for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Orange Prize, and she was the first winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing. Her American debut, Minaret, 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. 

Leila Aboulela has also published Coloured Lights ('Original and immediate, Aboulela's writing stands apart from the backwards-looking bores of recent years.' —The List) and The Translator ('She pulls you into her world as she refracts British life, its smells...

... Full Biography

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