Season of Migration to the North: A Novel (Paperback)

by Al-Tayyib Salih; Tayeb Salih (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
One of the classic themes followed in this complex novel, translated from the Arabic, is cultural dissonance between East and West, particularly the experience of a returned native. The narrator returns from his studies in England to his remote little village in Sudan, to begin his career as an educator. There he encounters Mustafa, a fascinating man of mystery, who also has studied at Oxford. As their relationship builds on this commonality, Mustafa reveals his past. A series of compulsive liaisons with English women who were similarly infatuated with the "Black Englishman," as he was nicknamed, have ended in disaster. Charged with the passion killing of his last paramour, Mustafa was acquitted by the English courts. As he unravels his complicated, gory and erotic story, Mustafa charges the listener with the custody of his present life. When Mustafa disappears, apparently drowned in the Nile and perhaps a suicide, another door in his secretive life opens to include his wife and children. Emerging from a constantly evolving narrative, in a trance-like telling, is the clash between an assumed worldly sophistication and enduring, dark, elemental forces. An arresting work by a major Arab novelist who mines the rich lode of African experience with the Western world.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
A beautifully constructed novel by an author whose reputation in Arabic is deservedly vast. --london tribune

An Arabian Nights in reverse, enclosing a pithy moral about international misconceptions and delusions." --the observer

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Product Details

• Paperback: 169 pages
• Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers (July 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0894101994
• ISBN-13: 978-0894101991
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #331,710 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A literary masterwork from Sudan, March 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Season of Migration to the North (African Writers) (Paperback)

Tayeb Salih's great novel is a compelling satirical rewrite of Joseph Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS. In Salih's version, instead of a European intellectual travelling to Africa to be corrupted by his contact with "primitive savagery," the protagonist starts out as an idealistic young man from Sudan who travels northward to Europe, where he is undone by corruption, decadence, and the mutual destructiveness of unhappy love affairs. The novel is cleverly written and well translated, with terrific insights into the relationships of southern and northern hemispheres; the colonized to their colonizers; Arabs and Europeans; and men and women. I've read a lot of Arab novels (and many more African ones); A SEASON OF MIGRATION TO THE NORTH is the best I've read to date.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A work of knife-like ironies and intelligence . . ., December 8, 2006

By	Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Season of Migration to the North (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Postcolonial and more than a little postmodern, this short novel tells a story within a story and goes through a variety of different styles of storytelling, representing a range of perspectives on being African in an Africa both bound in tradition and transformed by the influence of Europe. Born of both worlds, the North and the South, the novel calls to mind Joseph Conrad from its first words, its unnamed narrator speaking to an unseen audience of "gentlemen." And that is only the beginning of many ironies, as the novel interweaves mystery, melodrama, travelogue, bawdy humor, politics, sociology, history, topography, Faustian tale, confession, and some very racy material that comes close to being pure potboiler.

Set in Arab Sudan in the mid-20th century, the book can be read for any of several themes: the exoticism of Africa in the European imagination, the subjugation of women, the peril in the triumph of reason over compassion, the difficulty of determining truth in a world of secrecy and lies, the transformation of tribal village life with the introduction of foreign ideas and technology, and so on. Like the work of literature that it is, the book can be read more than once for its richly complex layers of meaning, where literal and figurative trade places at will. The knife-like edge of a dangerously superior intellect, for example, reappears later in the novel as a murder weapon - not once but twice. Earns a place on any shelf of 20th-century world literature.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Timeless Classic - A Dream, August 31, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Season of Migration to the North (African Writers) (Paperback)

"Season of Migration to the North" is simply an undiscovered gem among literary works. The work presents a story of a mysterious character who after being educated in Sudan follows his quest for knowledge to the "cold north" of London.
Seemingly a simple story develops into a complex character study weaved in with issues of colonialism in African countries, the effect of economics on the distrubution of wealth in the world, the meaning of economics as an academic discipline, and most importantly a quest for a personal and cultural identity - the paradox of diaspora.
The work is beautifully translated, as the reader will notice thus contributing to its lyrical and precise execution in which every word counts. The format in which the work is presented might confuse a few people but is highly relevant to the character and plot development.
For those familiar with Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" this will prove to be a worthwhile read which takes the concepts adressed in Ellison's work to a next level.
Also recommended is a film "The Wedding in Galilee" for further deconstruction and interpretation.