Join us for a book conversation with Leila Aboulela, 2025 Tejumola Olaniyan Creative Writer-in-Residence, on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, from 6:00 to 7:30 PM (GST) at the Auditorium, The Africa Institute, GSU, Sharjah. She will discuss her latest novel, River Spirit, a coming-of-age story set during the Mahdist War in 19th-century Sudan, and share insights into the craft of historical fiction, including archival research, navigating conflicting narratives, and creative storytelling. The session will include a Q&A and a book signing.
Leila Aboulela is the author of six novels, including Lyrics Alley, The Translator, and The Kindness of Enemies. She was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize (2025), the Caine Prize for African Writing, and the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award. Her work has been translated into fifteen languages, and she has written numerous plays for BBC Radio. She is Honorary Professor at the WORD Centre, University of Aberdeen, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Aboulela’s writing explores Islamic spiritual and political life, family, and identity in richly historical settings.
River Spirit follows Akuany and her brother Bol after they are orphaned and taken in by the young merchant Yaseen. Their intertwined lives reflect Sudan’s turbulent history under the rise of the self-proclaimed Mahdi, exploring themes of faith, family, freedom, and resistance. The novel vividly portrays 19th-century Sudanese society and the human struggles within political and colonial upheaval. Learn more.
“A novel of extraordinary sympathy and insight… a wonderful achievement.”
—Abdulrazak Gurnah, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
“Dazzling… One of the great pleasures of River Spirit is listening as the novel tells us how to read it. The pace is swift, galloping over momentous events, stating profound changes with unsettling directness… Aboulela has written a novel of war, love, faith, womanhood and—crucially—the tussle over truthful public narratives.”
— New York Times
The book is available for purchase online.
Join us for a book conversation with Leila Aboulela, 2025 Tejumola Olaniyan Creative Writer-in-Residence, on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, from 6:00 to 7:30 PM (GST) at the Auditorium, The Africa Institute, GSU, Sharjah. She will discuss her latest novel, River Spirit, a coming-of-age story set during the Mahdist War in 19th-century Sudan, and share insights into the craft of historical fiction, including archival research, navigating conflicting narratives, and creative storytelling. The session will include a Q&A and a book signing.
Join us for a book conversation with Leila Aboulela, 2025 Tejumola Olaniyan Creative Writer-in-Residence, on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, from 6:00 to 7:30 PM (GST) at the Auditorium, The Africa Institute, GSU, Sharjah. She will discuss her latest novel, River Spirit, a coming-of-age story set during the Mahdist War in 19th-century Sudan, and share insights into the craft of historical fiction, including archival research, navigating conflicting narratives, and creative storytelling. The session will include a Q&A and a book signing.
Leila Aboulela is the author of six novels, including Lyrics Alley, The Translator, and The Kindness of Enemies. She was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize (2025), the Caine Prize for African Writing, and the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award. Her work has been translated into fifteen languages, and she has written numerous plays for BBC Radio. She is Honorary Professor at the WORD Centre, University of Aberdeen, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Aboulela’s writing explores Islamic spiritual and political life, family, and identity in richly historical settings.
River Spirit follows Akuany and her brother Bol after they are orphaned and taken in by the young merchant Yaseen. Their intertwined lives reflect Sudan’s turbulent history under the rise of the self-proclaimed Mahdi, exploring themes of faith, family, freedom, and resistance. The novel vividly portrays 19th-century Sudanese society and the human struggles within political and colonial upheaval. Learn more.
“A novel of extraordinary sympathy and insight… a wonderful achievement.”
—Abdulrazak Gurnah, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
“Dazzling… One of the great pleasures of River Spirit is listening as the novel tells us how to read it. The pace is swift, galloping over momentous events, stating profound changes with unsettling directness… Aboulela has written a novel of war, love, faith, womanhood and—crucially—the tussle over truthful public narratives.”
— New York Times
The book is available for purchase online.
Subscribe to our mailing list and get the latest news from The Africa Institute
