The Translator is Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela's first novel, published in 1999. It is a story about a young Muslim Sudanese widow living in Scotland without her son, and her blooming relationship with a secular Scottish Middle Eastern scholar. It focuses on issues of faith, cross-cultural romance, and the modernisation of Sudan.
 First edition | |
| Author | Leila Aboulela |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Grove Press Black Cat imprint |
Publication date | 1999 |
| Pages | 208 |
Plot
After losing her husband, Sammar, a young Sudanese widow living in Aberdeen, Scotland, struggles to cope. Desperate to go home to her family, she becomes increasingly depressed until she develops a closer friendship with Rae, the head of the department, where she works as an Arabic translator at the University of Aberdeen. The friendship soon progresses into a romance, but their love encounters cultural and religious barriers and the two have to compromise to make their relationship work.[1]
The novel takes place both in Khartoum and Aberdeen and was inspired partially by Aboulela's own experience moving between these two cities.[2] Aboulela refers to the novel and the main character Sammar as "a Muslim Jane Eyre".[2]
Reception
Author J.M. Coetzee called the book "a story of love and faith all the more moving for the restraint with which it is written".[citation needed]
In reference to the importance of faith in the story, Riffat Yusuf of The Muslim News has called The Translator "The first halal novel written in English".[3]