Leila Aboulela

media release: New York Times Notable Author and Caine Prize winner Leila Aboulela has been praised by J.M. Coetzee, Ali Smith, and Rachel Cusk, among others, for her rich and nuanced novels depicting Islamic spiritual and political life. River Spirit follows an embattled young woman’s coming of age during the Mahdist War in 19th century Sudan. With her characteristic prose, “clear, lovely, and resonant as a ringing bell” (Washington Post), Aboulela weaves a spellbinding narrative of the years leading up to the British conquest of Sudan in 1898 and offers a deeply human look at the tensions between Britain and Sudan, Christianity and Islam, colonizer and colonized. River Spirit 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.