Sweetness in the Belly
by:
Camilla Gibb (author)
Like Brick Lane and The Kite Runner, Camilla Gibb’s widely praised new novel is a poignant and intensely atmospheric look beyond the stereotypes of Islam. After her hippie British parents are murdered, Lilly is raised at a Sufi shrine in Morocco. As a young woman she goes on pilgrimage to Harar,...
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Like Brick Lane and The Kite Runner, Camilla Gibb’s widely praised new novel is a poignant and intensely atmospheric look beyond the stereotypes of Islam. After her hippie British parents are murdered, Lilly is raised at a Sufi shrine in Morocco. As a young woman she goes on pilgrimage to Harar, Ethiopia, where she teaches Qur’an to children and falls in love with an idealistic doctor. But even swathed in a traditional headscarf, Lilly can’t escape being marked as a foreigner. Forced to flee Ethiopia for England, she must once again confront the riddle of who she is and where she belongs.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780143038726 (0143038729)
Publish date: March 27th 2007
Publisher: Penguin
Pages no: 368
Edition language: English
Category:
Novels,
European Literature,
British Literature,
Cultural,
Africa,
Book Club,
Adult Fiction,
Historical Fiction,
Religion,
Contemporary,
Canada,
Islam
Once again, a book that makes me appreciate the privilege of growing up in a truly democratic country. We may whine and grumble about the government of the day, but we have rights and opportunities that many in the world don't have or have been heavily denied in the past. This book is the story o...
This fascinating story takes us between two very different worlds. London in the 1980’s where Lily is a nurse struggling to find her place and Africa where she was raised by a Moroccan religious leader after being orphaned by her hippie English parents. Much of the action takes place in Ethiopi...
“My body is a whisper where hers is a shout” p 26.Abandoned it by about page 120. Too much vague gauzy stuff, with spiritual I-wanna-understand squishiness.
Lilly’s parents, British citizens, lead a life of reckless wanderings. While the family is traveling in Ethiopia, Lilly’s parents are killed and Lilly is sent to stay with the Great Abdal, a teacher and leader of his people. She is taught to be a devout Muslim by Abdal and she learns much about lite...
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