Elsewhere, Home

`Elsewhere, Home is a rich and poignant reflection of a Britain built - as ever - from multiple perspectives and starting points. Fragile, curious, human voices blend, lose themselves, redefine themselves. The emigrant and immigrant experiences have always been part of our storytelling; these beautifully focused tales of Khartoum, Edinburgh, London, Cairo and beyond are a delight.' A.L. Kennedy;`Exquisite fiction. There are gems here, elegantly cut, polished and framed. Luminous.' Fadia Faqir;`Full of elegance, tenderness and the small vulnerabilities that make up our lives' Roma Tearne;`This is the modern female voice ... fresh, diverse, challenging and uninhibited' Rachel Cusk;`Aboulela is the kind of writer from whom British people need to hear' Telegraph;`Thoughtful, wry, funny ... The deceptively quiet tales in Elsewhere, Home are barbed with tension and conflict. There is the desperate homesickness of immigrants; the complications of love between believers and non-believers ... [Aboulela's] interest is with ordinary people, with everyday ambitions and desires.' The Herald; `A beautiful and desolate collection ... [Aboulela's stories] distil many of her recurring concerns - immigrant loneliness, complicated romance and a portrayal of the Islamic faith that goes far beyond the cliched narrative - but without ever becoming trite. ... An intimacy is created that immediately pulls the reader into the [characters'] lives. ... There is so much quiet brilliance that it is a surprise for those who have only followed Aboulela's long-form fiction to discover she has just as much mastery of the short form.' The Observer; `A lovely collection of short stories about love, loneliness and spirituality' Nadiya Hussain, Good Housekeeping; `Spanning Cairo, Khartoum, Abu Dhabi, London and Aberdeen, Elsewhere, Home by Leila Aboulela looks in on the lives of contemporary British Muslims with ties to more than one place. ... With empathy and tenderness, Aboulela navigates classic intergenerational conflict in shifting cultural and religious sands. Elsewhere, Home is a sophisticated and modern narrative of global citizenship.' Laura Waddell, TLS; `Leila Aboulela is one of the world's best short story writers ... This selection beautifully conjures the vertigo of homesickness. These are everyday stories observed with unusual sensitivity to the fine grains of hope that live in throwaway gestures.' Lithub, Most Anticipated Books of 2019; `These intricacies of bi-cultural families and friendships carry a delicate strength that doesn't just resemble life, it is life ... this quiet collection transcends theme, setting, subject ... the first collection I've read since James Joyce's Dubliners that reminded me of the life-changing power of furiously-honest realism.' The New York Times Book Review