So this is another saga about a patriarchal family in exotic setting. Don't you love those? Publishers sure do - there is a new one every two weeks.

'Lyrics Alley' starts bizarrely with a family tree, even though there are only two generations on it - two brothers and their children. Who needs a tree? Please, I am a pro! I eat your tree for breakfast. I read Hundred Years of Solitude and got that under control and let me tell you there were about twelve generations, three hundred characters and a More...

Found the juxtapositions between Sudan and Egypt, tradition and advancement, pain and love to be extremely well persuaded through out the whole story. Totally engrossed in all the characters lives, it took me a while to acquaint with, but found everybody worthy of my attention.

I will not fail to mention the author's ability to invoke the human in me, the absolute empathy with some and rage with others. I hope all that read this pay close attention to ALL traditions, as some are perpetrated to b More...

Well worth reading.

I really enjoyed this novel, set in Sudan and Egypt in the 1950s.
It covers a lot of ground, but the story at the centre is the true relationship between Sudan's famous poet and songwriter, Hassan Awad Aboulela and his childhood sweetheart, represented as Nur and Soraya in the novel. They were cousins, betrothed from a young age, until a serious accident changed everything. Hassan Awad Aboulela was Leila Aboulela's uncle and although he died before she was born, he remained qui More...

This was a book I would never have read, but for belonging to a Book Club, an excellent way of broadening one’s reading.
The book told a very sad but uplifting story in a truly empathetic and humane fashion, although I found it hard to get into at first. The unfamiliar names prompted me to refer often to the family chart at the front, until I was well into the book. I also found the references to Muslim forms of worship very unfamiliar, but the author handled those issues so well that one could More...

Leila Aboulela’s “Lyrics Alley” is built with an attractive storyline with changing viewpoints that give interesting insights into life in a Sudanese society. It is a suggestive story of a major Sudanese family that is shaken by the power changes and near tragedy which threatens a heritage that has taken decades to build.The novel’s shifting viewpoints offer interesting insights into a culture with different characters that embody the clash between modernity and tradition. There is a clash betwe More...

Laila Aboulela’s novel is very amazing; it shows the life in Sudan just before the independence. It offers an interesting family drama of the Middle East society, and specifically Sudanese culture and tradition, which are not very known for me. Showing the different between the two wives’ Waheeba who’s present the Sudanese heritage and tradition, and Nabella who’s show the Egyptian modernization, it create a conflict that is still being fight in our Islamic culture these days. I like the use of More...

This is a thrilling piece of written art by Leila Abulela. She paints a clear picture of the pains of a love stopped by fate in the form of a fatal accident suffered by Nur. Not only does she excel in her writing, but also shows the ability to make a story from the pre-colonial era turn the heads of millions of modern readers, and this is intriguing, to say the least.
The book has a heavy impact on various groups in society especially the Muslim woman as it talks of her place in the Muslim religi More...

Set just before Sudan’s independence in the 1950s, Leila Aboulela’s novel focuses on Sudanese and Egyptian families. It is a family epic, which evolves around the Sudanese society and the conflict between modernization and their cultural traditions. From reading the book you learn that the younger generation is more liberal and so more open to the changes in their lives and traditions. This is also shown Mahmoud’s two wives, Nabilah and Waheeba. Nabila is portrayed as the modern one with the ope More...

We have few chances to see clearly into two other cultures that are foreign to us. In this case, a rich Father (Mahmoud Abuzeid) with two wives: one from the Sudan (Hajjah Waheeba: uneducated, old style beliefs, unattractive) and one ( Nabilah: modern, self based, attractive, and younger) from Cairo, Egypt. Inspired by the author's uncle's experience,the story centers on the consequences of cultural actions by each character on a daily basis. We get involved with the tension of two wives and the More...

If I were to judge this book based on literary value, the most I would give was three stars. The style of writing was simple and light-hearted, but too simple and easygoing to be called great. Good maybe, but not great. For non-English speakers who want to try reading English fiction, you can start from this. And, oh yeah, the editor deserve a good spanking for letting some obvious mistakes went unnoticed (but just a spanking; the only editor that should be slapped or even killed is Hilal Asyraf More...

SPOILER ALERT…….

There is something seductive about this book. It is not just the poetry of the books poet Nur, his absolute and pure love for his cousin Soraya which drives his every word and thought and which continues to move and inspire him even when these are all he can move, but more, for this is a book which starts very slowly then you suddenly find yourself immersed into its very real sense of story, of time, of place. The differences between Mahmoud’s two wives, younger second wife Nabil More...

Author Lelia Aboulela brings us inside the closed world of a prosperous home in 1950's Sudan. In the larger world at this time Sudan was about to gain it's independence from Egypt and Great Britain and embark on a series of civil wars but those events are barely touched on in Lyrics Alley. That side of life is not what this novel is about. Lyrics Alley is smaller in scale and bigger in humanity.

Despite a lifestyle dedicated to custom, Mahmoud Abuzeid is a forward thinking man. He has successfull More...

The author was inspired by her uncle Hassan Awad Aboulela, although she changed many elements of the story (including settings and characters) in order to create a fictional work instead of a biography of him, the poet. The poet in Lyrics Alley is young Nur Abuzeid, the prodigy and hope of the family. Unlike his older and alcoholic brother, he does well in school and has a bright future in front of him. His appetite for learning and poetry will never be satisfied, but with the rich and powerful More...

I liked the perspective this gave me on a very different culture as well as recent history in the Sudan and Egypt. I learned a lot about how life could be for people in that time and those places. I also enjoyed the way the story carried forward in the consciousness of more than one character, although that early strength became a later weakness as the author chose to foreground and highlight one of the less interesting (to me) characters. Not who I would have chosen and an altogether more roman More...

Set mainly in the Sudan and Egypt of the 1950's, Lyrics Alley, though centring largely on the fictionalised real-life story of Hassan Awad Aboulela (Nur in the book), a young man who, after a tragic accident changes his life forever, goes on to become an accomplished poet, this is also the fascinating story of the old giving way to the new as shown in the story of the two wives of patriarch, Mahmoud. Two powerful women, their stories make fascinating, if sometimes, shocking reading.


Not to be dis More...

I felt frustrated that this book alluded to a Sudanese and Egyptian history and Britain's role in that without really making it clear and I ended up on Wikipedia just to get some wider context. This was a very familiar style of book with lots of lovely descriptions and a family saga reinforcing the need to stay connected and support each other even at moments when people want to pull away. I really enjoyed seeing the sharp contrast in the modern and older generations. It was a pleasing read wit More...

Another impressive piece of writing from one of my favorite writers - Leila Aboulela. Though I would not call this work as good as her novel "Minaret," it is a strong piece of writing nonetheless.

Aboulela herself is from Sudan and like many authors she writes about what she knows. There are portions of this novel that are actually biographical. This novel takes place in the early 1950's, when British rule in North Africa is beginning to wane and traditioanl and more modern principles are frequ More...

Leila Aboulela 's Novel is a wonderful piece, it takes you in a journey to the Sudan in the period before and during independence, it showed many customs, traditions, real places that were at that time. It also went to Egypt to show the contrast between these two countries at that time, and to show also similarities and bonds that were exited between these countries.

The Novel is based on a true story which is Hassan Awad Aboulela's (Leila Aboulela's Uncle) life story, a famous poet from the 1950 More...

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this book. I usually don't do that well with African lit, but this story was told so simply and beautifully that it was hard to put down. The juxtapositions between modernity and tradition, Egypt and Sudan, imprisonment and freedom, were really lovely.

Also, even though some characters were obviously on the wrong side of tradition (promoting subjugation of women, especially), most of them still managed to be well-rounded and sympathetic. Maybe with th More...

I may have given this book 4 stars if I hadn't read that some reviewers were comparing the author to the highly esteemed Egyptian novelist and Nobel Prize winner, Naguib Mahfouz. Mahfouz's monumental work, The Cairo Trilogy, is much deeper in scope and breadth than Aboulela's story, written over many years.
But, both authors represent the much needed Arabic voice in contemporary literature and offer similar themes of domestic and famly life in male dominated cultures(Egypt and Sudan).
Aboulela do More...

As with Minaret (Aboulela's first novel) I struggled a little with the moral implications of Lyrics Alley. The writing is smooth and often lovely, and I warmed to the characters almost immediately: the sisters, Fatma and Soraya, at the mercy of their old-fashioned father Idris; their uncle, Mahmoud, head of their family dynasty, and his paralysed son, Nur. The teacher, Ustaz Badr too. But, while I liked them immensely, I found it difficult to engage with their narrative arcs, and the cultural, r More...

The Abuzeid family is wealthy and powerful in 1950s Sudan. Still under British rule, the country functions successfully which is the first surprise in this beautifully written book. Mahmoud considers himself to be modern but has two wives, one a traditional Sudanese woman, the second much younger from Egypt. The various trials and conflicts among the extended family draw the reader into the center of the clan. When Nur, the younger son of the first wife has a serious accident which completely ch More...

Lyrics Alley has some very beautiful moments but is a disjointed novel that never really pulls it together by the end. It is a quick and compelling story but the reasons for being pulled into the novel - the setting, the tragedy the characters, wondering about the outcomes - end up being less than fully realized. I was left dissatisfied, unfortunately, yet I am open to reading more by this author. I wonder, though, given the setting and political climate of the time (Sudan & Egypt, 1951 & More...

Beautifully written.

This is my favourite of Leila Aboulela's novels. Like its title, her prose is always lyrical, and Lyrics Alley has an added confidence in its writing.

The novel is set in the 1950s as Sudan approaches independence from the UK. I knew little about Sudan's history, and this is deftly woven into the novel, without dominating it. Lyrics Alley is based on the true story of Aboulela's uncle, who turned to poetry after an accident.

In Lyrics Alley, Mahmoud Abuzeid is a prosperous b More...

The future for the Abuzeid family looks secure. Mahmoud, the head of the family, runs a successful business empire with the help of his brother Idris, the hindrance of his eldest son Nassir and with a potential heir in his younger son Nur. There is some conflict in the family between Mahmoud's first wife Waheeba, who is illiterate and traditionalist, and his second wife Nabilah, who is educated and modern, but nothing Mahmoud thinks he can't deal with. Soraya has a few disagreements with her fat More...

Though it took me some time to find the rhythm of the book (the prose was more formal than my usual fare), the beauty of the story drew me in. Leila Aboulela tells the story of a family dealing with the paralysis of its wunderkind son, the one who displayed athleticism, intellect, and commitment to hard work. He was expected to marry his childhood sweetheart and take over the family business. But an accident has changed all that.
Aboulela writes to answer the question, "Why do bad things happen t More...

I enjoyed Minaret years ago and came across this book when browsing at my library. Leila Aboulela is a beautiful writer and this story set in Sudan was compelling. I hadn't known about Sudan's shared history with Egypt and that it had been a British colony in pretty recent history. Before its more well-known and recent history of civil war and unrest, Sudan was becoming a pretty cosmopolitan place, with inhabitants often grappling the line between traditional Sudanese culture and that of the Wes More...

It's a nice saga about big arabian family, who by marriage joins traditions of two countries – Sudan and Egypt. But it doesn't mean calm coexistence, rather conflict beetwen two worlds – one full of traditions and rites and second one, more westernized. The writer from the muslim point of view shows us which values should win and which finally win. Interesting especially for our western world which very often sinks in chaos.
The book is full of arabian atmosphere, we can really smell an air, dry More...

I am going to come across sounding unimaginative I know, but Lyrics Alley is lyrical. A slow-paced introduction to the extended dynastic Abuzeid family leads one to identifying with the characters almost immediately. Slow-paced as the introduction is, the turn of events as the plot gives way is anything but. Lyrics Alley reads both like historical fiction - which it is not, and the dramatic work of fiction you want to sink your teeth into.

The plot centres around Mahmoud Abuzeid, a Sudanese whose More...

Troubles strikes a Sudanese family during the early 1950s as Sudan was preparing to break away from Egypt.the family patriarch has both a Sudanese wife and sons and a second, younger Egyptian wife and two small children. The bookdeals with their family troubles as well as the socio-economic problems that ensue as the two countries strive for an amicalbe break=up.

Historical novels always give a new perspective on as aspect of history that I have frequently been unaware of.