The Translator

Leila Aboulela, a Sudanese writer, first reached American readers with Minaret, the story of a well-off young African Muslim woman who ends up working as a maid in London. The Translator is her debut novel, and this edition brings it to North America for the first time.

Sammar, a Sudanese widow, translates Arabic at a university in Aberdeen, Scotland. After her husband died suddenly, she sent her young son to live with relatives in Khartoum. She is left alone in the grey, cold city, carrying her grief and a deep sense of isolation.

When Sammar begins translating for Rae, a Scottish scholar of Islam, the two form a close friendship that stirs up feelings she has long kept buried. As their bond grows into love, Sammar understands that they must face the fact that Rae does not share the faith that anchors her life.

The novel explores love in both its human and spiritual forms, and follows a woman deciding how to remain faithful to her beliefs, to herself, and to a love that challenges both.