Elsewhere, Home

Book excerpt: The renowned Sudanese-Egyptian author explores the lives of immigrants at home and abroad in this “earnest and engrossing” story collection (Publishers Weekly, starred review). A young woman’s encounter with a former classmate elicits painful reminders of her old life in Khartoum. A wealthy young Sudanese woman studying in Aberdeen begins an unlikely friendship with one of her Scottish classmates. A woman experiences an evolving relationship to her favorite writer, whose portrait of their shared culture both reflects and conflicts with her own sense of identity. Shuttling between the dusty, sun-baked streets of Khartoum and the university halls and cramped apartments of Aberdeen and London, Elsewhere, Home explores, with subtlety and restraint, the profound feelings of yearning, loss, and alienation that come with leaving one’s homeland in pursuit of a different life.