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The Translator
 
 
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The Translator (Paperback)

by Leila Aboulela (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 184 pages
  • Publisher: Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited (Sep 1999)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 074866257X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0748662579
  • Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 13.8 x 1.5 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 323,845 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

Sammar is a young Sudanese widow who works as an Arabic translator in Aberdeen, grieving for her lost husband. Then things change when she falls in love with Rae, a Scottish academic. But he is very different from Sammar: a divorcee, self-proclaimed cynic and a non-Muslim.
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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Meeting a growing demand for cross-cultural perspectives., 17 Nov 1999
By A Customer
As an Egyptian woman who lived for a long time in Khartoum (Sudan) and sometime in Aberdeen, I read Aboulela's novel with great interest. The author did not describe the two cities and their people in a conventional style. Instead, she has exposed many complex hidden human feelings that are built inside people who live in a certain geographical location. She has also cleverly exposed differences in the way of thinking between followers of different religions and philosophies. This ability is very rare and should be encouraged in a world of growing cultural integration. I congratulate the publishers for their positive contribution to the growing demand for cross-cultural perspectives.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars captivating lyrical writing, 20 Aug 2003
By Mr. N. Shaikh - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Sammar is a Sudanese woman, living in Aberdeen. She works as a translator, helping a professor named Rae. She is still suffering after the death of her husband, living in a shell, barely aware of the human world. Piece by piece, Rae draws her out and she begins to live again. But Rae is not a muslim, how can she follow her dreams to be with him?

The story is touching, if a little soppy at times. Sammar's thoughts are very revealing, the very personification of islamic philosophy and ethos. Her faith is simply her way of life, without being drawn into life or death struggles or politics. Her comments and observations on people's way of life here and in Sudan fill the book. Rae is an intriguing figure, he captivates her and the reader. Both characters are quiet and yet irresistably draw your interest. An excellent introduction for what is to many readers, another world. The ending is a little too pat, but that is a small criticism.

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5.0 out of 5 stars "Deeper than happiness...?", 9 Mar 2009
By Friederike Knabe (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Translator (Paperback)
Aberdeen, Scotland and Khartoum, Sudan, cities more dissimilar than one could imagine, form the backdrop to this finely crafted, tender cross-cultural love story. They are intimately connected through the main character, Sammar, as she experiences the stark contrasts of culture, history and climate. Yet, she remains very much attached to both places. Leila Aboulela builds on her own experience to create the very personal associations between place and character. The author's brief, yet rich, novel is not only a delicate and moving love story, seen primarily from the heroine's perspective, it also touches, in a more general sense, on general human emotions such as longing and belonging, tradition and change, loss, faith and personal growth.

Sammar, a young Sudanese widow, works with Scotsman Rae Isles, a recognized Islamic scholar, at the university in Aberdeen: she as a translator of Arabic, while he is the primary beneficiary of her work. Having returned from Khartoum where she had left her small son in the care of family, she hopes to free herself from the traditional constraints imposed on her there. Here, however, she has to come to terms not only with the bleak surroundings of a wet and grey winter, but with loneliness and memories of happier times. The author sensitively captures Sammar's state of mind: as a devout Muslim, she is sustained by her faith, her prayers providing a quiet rhythm for daily life. At the same time there is her growing attraction for Rae, his serious kindness, his extensive knowledge and "otherness". Her feelings are returned, yet remain unspoken until Sammar is about to leave on a home visit to bring back her son. The encounter does not turn out as Sammar would have hoped. Back in Khartoum, her "other" life, absorbed in her extended family, is conveyed with a similar intimate familiarity and social awareness. Will they or won't they... ever get together again? The essential question for any love story is touchingly revealed by Aboulela, totally in tune with her characters and the wider cultural contexts, yet completely unpredictable until the end.

"The Translator", Aboulela's first novel, was originally published in England in 1999; the author won in 2000 the initial Caine Prize for African Writing, also referred to as the "African Booker". Reading the novel today, post 9/11 and with the ongoing crisis in Darfur regularly in the news, the novel strikes my as one of a more innocent time past, an excellent example that deals with a level of human intimacy and innocence, of cross-cultural understanding that is more complex to find today. [Friederike Knabe]
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