Leila Aboulela

Author profile

born

January 01, 1964 in Cairo, Egypt

gender

female

genre

Literature & Fiction

About this author

edit data

Leila Aboulela grew up in Khartoum, Sudan where she attended the Khartoum American School and Sister School. She graduated from Khartoum University in 1985 with a degree in Economics and was awarded her Masters degree in statistics from the London School of Economics. She lived for many years in Aberdeen where she wrote most of her works while looking after her family; she currently lives and lectures in Abu Dhabi.

She was awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2000 for her short story The Museum and her novel The Translator was nominated for the Orange Prize in 2002, and was chosen as a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times in 2006.

combine editions
Books by Leila Aboulela

Average rating: 3.58 · 1,059 ratings · 231 reviews · 6 distinct works

	Minaret 3.53 avg rating — 455 ratings — published 2005 — 9 editions	My rating:
	The Translator 3.53 avg rating — 347 ratings — published 1999 — 13 editions	My rating:
	Lyrics Alley: A Novel 3.71 avg rating — 209 ratings — published 2010 — 9 editions	My rating:
	coloured lights 3.88 avg rating — 43 ratings — published 2012 — 3 editions	My rating:
	The Translator 2.00 avg rating — 1 rating	My rating:
	The 'I Am Woman' Anthology - Volume 1 by Victoria Watson (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Margot Bloom (Editor), Rachel Cochrane (Contributor) 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2012	My rating:

More books by Leila Aboulela…

Upcoming Events

No scheduled events. Add an event.

Quotes by Leila Aboulela

“I've come down in the world. I've slid to a place where the ceiling is low and there isn't much room for me to move.Most of the time I'm good. I accepted my sentence and do not brood or look back. But sometimes a shift makes me remember. Routine is ruffled and a new start makes me suddenly conscious of what I've become -”
― Leila Aboulela, Minaret

tags: colored-lights , lyrics-ally , minaret , the-translater

3 people liked it

“The Mercy of Allah is an Ocean, Our sins are a lump of clay clenched between the beak of a pigeon. The pigeon is perched on the branch of a tree at the edge of that ocean.It only has to open it's beak”
― Leila Aboulela, Minaret

tags: allah , bird , clay , leila , lyrics-alley , mercy , minaret , the-translater

3 people liked it

“This was where she belonged with Nur, right here, here in his songs. Here within the lyrics they were intimate, caught in the rythm of his words, proppelled by the substance of his dreams.
These songs would be their story and these lyrics their home.”
― Leila Aboulela, Lyrics Alley: A Novel

tags: love

2 people liked it

See all Leila Aboulela's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Bookish: W11 - Completed Tasks	302	87	Apr 30, 2011 11:56pm
Literary Fiction ...: "The Memory of Love" Makes Orange Prize Longlist	7	32	May 22, 2011 09:25am
The Seasonal Read...: Spring Challenge 2011 Completed Tasks (DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS)	2898	731	May 31, 2011 09:01pm
Middle East/North...: 2011 Stop (2) Nile valley and the Horn of Africa	80	71	Jun 24, 2011 01:52pm
Bookish: Asia	217	146	Nov 15, 2011 09:21am
Around the World ...: * Around the World in 80 Books Annual Challenge	53	392	Apr 19, 2012 07:39pm
Around the World ...: Sudan and South Sudan	3	22	May 04, 2012 04:21pm
Around the World ...: Pepita globehopping	18	53	May 28, 2012 03:32am

More…

Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and invite Leila to Goodreads.