Bird Summons: A Novel

by Leila Aboulela

Overview

In her adventurous new novel, New York Times Notable author Leila Aboulela delivers a lively portrait of three women who embark on a journey of self-discovery while grappling with the conflicting demands of family, duty, and faith.





When Salma, Moni, and Iman—friends and active members of their local Muslim Women's group—decide to take a road trip together to the Scottish Highlands, they leave behind lives often dominated by obligation, frustrated desire, and dull predictability. Each wants something more out of life, but fears the cost of taking it. Salma is successful and happily married, but tempted to risk it all when she's contacted by her first love back in Egypt; Moni gave up a career in banking to care for her disabled son without the help of her indifferent husband; and Iman, in her twenties and already on her third marriage, longs for the freedom and autonomy she's never known. When the women are visited by the Hoopoe, a sacred bird from Muslim and Celtic literature, they are compelled to question their relationships to faith and femininity, love, loyalty, and sacrifice.





Brilliantly imagined, thoughtful and wise, Bird Summons confirms Leila Aboulela's reputation as one of our finest contemporary writers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802149152
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	02/11/2020
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	259,102
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

LEILA ABOULELA was born in Cairo and grew up in Khartoum. She has written four other novels: The Translator, Minaret, and Lyrics Alley, all of which were longlisted for the Orange Prize, and The Kindness of Enemies. Lyrics Alley won Novel of the Year at the Scottish Book Awards and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. She was awarded the Caine Prize for her short story “The Museum,” included in her collection Elsewhere, Home—winner of the Saltire Fiction Prize. She lives in Aberdeen.

Editorial Reviews

11/04/2019

Aboulela’s impressive latest (after Elsewhere, Home) follows three Muslim women as they travel through the Scottish Highlands. Moni, a former banker, is the mother of Adam, a five-year-old with severe cerebral palsy. Her devotion to him has driven a wedge between her and her husband, Murtada, who’s pressuring her and Adam to join him in Saudi Arabia. Iman is on her third doomed marriage; she was brought to Britain from war-torn Syria by her second husband. Having lived her entire adult life as someone’s wife, she looks up to independent Salma, the de facto leader of the group, who’s a successful massage therapist and has a Scottish husband and four children. Recent social media overtures from Salma’s college ex back in Egypt, meanwhile, have left her questioning what could have been. The three women set out on a weeklong trip to the grave of Lady Evelyn Cobbold, the first British woman to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca. After they arrive at their cabin, they receive spectral visitations: a healthy young boy who makes Moni think of her son, a runner Salma begins to believe is her ex, and the Hoopoe, a mythical bird, for Iman. There’s a not-entirely-successful vein of magical realism, but readers will root for Aboulela’s well-drawn cast as they reconcile their desires with their faiths and the obligations of their everyday lives. Aboulela’s novel is empathetic and insightful, offering a nuanced representation of the three characters through a blend of Islamic faith and Scottish folklore. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Bird Summons


Named One of The Guardian's Best Books of 2019


“[E]legant . . . [P]ossesses all the pleasures we’ve come to expect from Aboulela, the author of Lyrics Alley and The Translator: psychological acuity, rich characterization, intricate emotional plotting. And prose that is clear, lovely and resonant as a ringing bell.”—Washington Post


“This novel is a perfect balancing act: a beautiful portrait of three individuals, an insightful blend of Muslim and Celtic fables, equal parts fierce and fun.” —LitHub, "10 New Books We're Excited About This Week"


“Aboulela does a beautiful job examining faith and the interior life of women.” —Christian Science Monitor, “10 Best Books of February”


“[E]ngagingly executed . . . .Each well-developed plot line deepens characterization, while Aboulela’s interweaving of Muslim and Celtic fables via the sacred hoopoe bird, adds another dimension to the story and offers a sense of connection between the two traditions and the past and the present.”—Booklist, starred review


“[I]mpressive . . . Aboulela’s novel is empathetic and insightful, offering a nuanced representation of the three characters through a blend of Islamic faith and Scottish folklore.”—Publishers Weekly


“Tender, but unsentimental. . . rooted in everyday experience without forsaking the spiritual, told in effortlessly enjoyable style.”—Daily Mail





“She's so good with women's interiority, and Muslim women's subjectivity... She gets beyond any cliché or type of the Muslim women.”—BBC Radio





“A magic carpet ride into the forest of history and the lives of women. Playful, profound, and moving.”—Lucy Ellman, author of Sweet Desserts and Mimi





“A Scottish-Arabic Canterbury Tales, a quest full of stories and surprises: a challenging storyteller’s tour de force, uniting two radically different cultures with a handshake and a kiss.”—Patricia Dunker, author of Hallucinating Foucault





“A wonderful book. I loved the beauty of its language and the subtle interweaving of myth with the spiritual and physical journeys of the women. I found it fascinating, powerful and profound.”—Anne Donovan, Orange Prize-shortlisted author of Buddha Da





“Engaging and funny and rich in narrative suspense.”—Abdulrazak Gurnah, Man Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Paradise





“A heady blend of social realism, magic, Middle Eastern folktale and Celtic myth. Leila Aboulela’s is a unique and refreshing voice in contemporary Scottish fiction.”—James Robertson, author of The Testament of Gideon Mack

From the Publisher

02/01/2020

Three Muslim Scottish women go on a pilgrimage to visit the estate and grave of Lady Evelyn Cobbald, a Scottish noblewoman who converted to Islam in the early 20th century. Each woman is facing a personal crisis, and the differences among their personalities and outlooks cause their relationship to fray over the week they spend in close quarters. The driven and domineering Salma, married to a Scottish convert and the mother of four, reconnects online with a suitor she rejected in Egypt as a young woman. Moni resists her husband's pleas to join him in Saudi Arabia, favoring her all-consuming devotion to caring for her severely disabled son. Beautiful Iman has just been abandoned by her third husband. Strange occurrences in and around the cottage where they are staying force the women to confront their demons and choose the path forward. VERDICT Incorporating elements of magical realism and tales from both the Quran and Anglo folk traditions, this latest from Aboulela (The Kindness of Enemies) is a strange mix of domestic realism and fantasy/allegory. The supernatural aspects start out subtly and almost unnoticeably but begin to take over in the book's last third, which makes the conclusion a bit heavy-handed if intriguing. [See Prepub Alert, 8/5/19.]—Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis

Library Journal

2019-11-11
Three members of a British Muslim women's group travel north to the Scottish Highlands, where their individual preoccupations turn increasingly surreal, leading them to redefine their attitudes and their futures.

Talking birds, phantom children, and physical metamorphoses are just a few of the surprises in this latest novel from an Egyptian-born writer who has previously used a more realistic style to explore the dilemmas of Muslim women often stranded between cultures. Aboulela (Elsewhere, Home, 2019, etc.) does begin her new work in recognizable territory, depicting a trio of friends who share a religion and immigrant background, but gradually proceedings shift into a more fantastical place. Salma, married to Muslim-convert David and mother to four British children, has enjoyed the most freedom, yet she fantasizes about the life she might have had in Egypt and is enjoying a risky phone dialogue with Amir, the man she didn't marry. Moni is neglecting and endangering her marriage by devoting herself exclusively to the care of her son, Adam, who has cerebral palsy. Iman, youngest and prettiest of the three, yearns for a child but has just been rejected by her third husband and is now homeless. During a week together in a remote loch-side cottage, the women pursue private paths: Iman wears peculiar costumes and communes with a fable-sprouting Hoopoe, a sacred bird; Moni befriends a silent child who suddenly begins to grow alarmingly, like Alice in Wonderland; and Salma chases Amir through the woods. All three suffer painful physical alterations and journey through testing landscapes, but their friendship, previously fraying, helps sustain them until the Hoopoe leads them back. Aboulela's exploration of the women's problems of choice, faith, and commitment are as immersive as ever, but her dreamscapes, while imaginative and disconcerting, seem to sit oddly, at one didactic remove from the story.

Split between two different narrative modes, Aboulela's latest is both engaging and perplexing.

Kirkus Reviews

Read More