Reviews

Elsewhere, Home by Leila Aboulela

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reads2cope's review against another edition

4.0

“No one was hurt, hardly anyone was in the room at the time. He found it funny. Perhaps this is the essence of my country, what I miss most. Those everyday miracles, the poise between normality and chaos. The awe and the breathtaking gratitude for simple things. A place where people say, ‘Allah alone is eternal.’”

These short stories made me even more eager to read a novel by Aboulela. This was the first copy available from my library, and while I struggled a bit with the format, the writing was beautiful and I felt totally immersed in each setting. As someone who lives abroad, the emotions of homesickness and being out of place really hit hard. Maybe I’m too much of a romantic, but after a few chapters of unhappy couples, reading each new sad relationship became tiring.

“Cinnamon tea, sweet in chipped glasses. Roasted watermelon seeds, the salt dissolving in our mouths, the empty shells falling around like leaves.”

abbigator's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

katrin_loves_books's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad

3.5

bookofcinz's review against another edition

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4.0

He was by nature cautious, wanting new things but held back by a vague mistrust.

It was easier for his parents to accept that he was in love with a Muslim girl than it was to accept that he was in love Islam

Maybe this is what getting older means, becoming disappointed in our own selves.

People, I am sure, had said to you, "I devoured your novel," bit your novel devoured me.

What an exceptionally brilliant, cohesive, intelligent and well written short story collection. Lelila Aboulela's ability to distill worlds in 10 pages or less makes her a brilliant story teller. I did not finish any story feeling like I was short changed or wondering "what just happened" the characters, their lives and current problems were well thought out, nuanced and deeply impacting.

These 13 stories, follows the lives of characters who long for home in some way. There is a sense of unease, longing, regret and deep loss in how their stories are told, but handled so beautifully. We meet a man who marries for green card, a girl falling in-love with a Kebab maker, a man visiting home without his family because his white wife refuse to step on the continent of Africa.. all wanting a piece of home.

I particularly LOVED the story Pages of Fruit as a reader, I have been down the rabbit hole our protagonist goes down and it was nice to see how that played out from her and the writer's perspective. What a well written book!

Honestly, if you loved Manchester Happened and How To Love A Jamaican you will LOVE this.

half_book_and_co's review against another edition

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4.0

I first encountered Leila Aboulela's writing with her short story The Museum published in the 1999 anthology Opening Spaces (edited by the unforgetable Yvonne Vera). I fell in love with this story about a young Sudanese woman, Shadia, who is an university student in Scotland, and tries to navigate this new setting. Thus, I was excited when Elsewhere, Home was published. A book collecting stories Aboulela has written and published over the last twenty years, from The Museum to Pages of Fruit (first published in Freeman's 2017). The collection does not disappoint. Aboulela manages to write full-fledged characters in just a few pages. These characters find themselves often in transit, far away from home or in a situation where they newly dissect what home might mean to them. The stories are written beautifully, astute observations, vignettes of daily life.

annetjeberg's review against another edition

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3.0

I really like Aboulela's books. But some of these short stories fell short for me. It felt at times repetitive, but not boring, though I skipped some stories. Glad the stories were really short, which is not always the case with short stories, and overall it was a charming read, just expected a bit better.