This is evident in the space that she gives to Sudan in her novels. This begs my cliched question, “Where is home Leila?” She seems to be at ease with changes in location having been born in Cairo, raised in Khartoum then spending some years in Scotland and now Doha. Starbucks coffee at a mall in Doha is, well… a little different from the romance of an Indian literature festival, but Leila’s elegance is the binding constant between these two meetings. I wanted the opportunity to unveil some of this depth so I arranged a meeting, over coffee (of course) back in Doha – where we both currently live. Like her writing, there is an intelligent depth that emerges after slight probing. She has a type of poetic demeanour, a soft grace that seems to flow into her writing. She had her audience captivated, listening to a reading from her latest novel ‘Lyrics Alley’. I first met Leila Aboulela at a literature festival in Jaipur, India.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |