Season of Migration to the North
The English translation of this book is by Denys Johnson Davies and published by New York Review Books Classics.
After years of study in Europe, the young narrator of Season of Migration to the North returns to his village along the Nile in the Sudan. It is the 1960s, and he is eager to make a contribution to the new postcolonial life of his country. Back home, he discovers a stranger among the familiar faces of childhood—the enigmatic Mustafa Sa’eed. Mustafa takes the young man into his confidence, telling him the story of his own years in London, of his brilliant career as an economist, and of the series of fraught and deadly relationships with European women that led to a terrible public reckoning and his return to his native land.
But what is the meaning of Mustafa’s shocking confession? Mustafa disappears without explanation, leaving the young man—whom he has asked to look after his wife—in an unsettled and violent no-man’s-land between Europe and Africa, tradition and innovation, holiness and defilement, and man and woman, from which no one will escape unaltered or unharmed.
Season of Migration to the North is a rich and sensual work of deep honesty and incandescent lyricism. In 2001 it was selected by a panel of Arab writers and critics as the most important Arab novel of the twentieth century.
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Admin - 4 years ago
من ارشيف تعليقات القراء 2004
name: Borhan Riad
ElTayeb Saleh describes returning home after many years abroad by saying that he no longer feels like a feather in the wind. This was no doubt true at the time when the novel was written but I wonder if the author were to describe the same situation today. Would he use the same description? My personal experience is that going home no longer provides this overwhelming sense of security and well being maybe because our culture is under attack, not only figuratively but also militarily. How can any arab feel secure these days?
name: دنيا كامل
أعرف أن هذه الرواية من الكلاسيكيات إلا أنني يجب أن أعترف أنني وجدتها معقدة أكثر من اللازم وأرجو أن يختار المنتدى مستقبلا بعض القصص الرومانسية.
name: Dalal Mana
I had read Tayeb Saleh’s masterpiece many years ago but thanks to Arab World Books, I got the opportunity to reread it and relive its unique experience. I think it is a great idea to select one of the true classical masterpieces every now and then.
name: جاسم
لماذا يصر كتابنا على المشاهد الجنسية الفاضحة والألفاظ الخارجة غير اللائفة؟ في الحقيقة رواية موسم الهجرة لها أهداف نبيلة ورؤية واقعية لولا هذه الشوائب غير المبررة.
name: Ali Tal
کSeason of Migration to the North" a novel by Tayeb Saleh is steeped in the lore of the Nile and the interweaving tales of fellaheen on its banks and their unchanging attitudes and ways of life. Deploying his brilliant literary talent, the author's own experiences in the wild and illusionary landscapes of the desert are beautifully brought into the reader's eye of fancy. Tayeb Saleh exhumes repressed memories and unexplored lives intermingled with colonial and postcolonial history of the Sudan, both personal and political. Although کSeason of Migration to the North" speaks faithfully and poetically about the Arabs, it somewhat fanciful and deficient in credibility in contrasting them with the English. A murderer in the first half of 20th century Britain would not have escaped the gallows.
name: el-fannan
منذ سنوات عديدة قرأت قولا مأثورا لألبرتو مورافيا مؤداه أن في الرواية الايقاع هو كل شئ وهي عبارة لم استوعبها الا عند قراءة تحفة الطيب صالح تلك الرواية التي تتركك مندمجا متحمسا محموما في قراءتها ومندفعا لا تتوقف الا بنهاية آخر كلمة في آخر صفحة.
name:
موسم الهجرة الى الشمالعمل فني خالد ليس فقط لكونها رواية على أعلى مستوى من الاتقان والاحكام وانما كذلك لأنها تلقي الضوء على روح الهيمنة الثقافية والسياسية التي تحكم عالمنا المعاصر والمرء لا يملك الا ان يتساءل هل نجحنا بالفعل في تخطي حقبة السيطرة الاستعمارية ؟ اما ان دورة الاستعمار التقليدي كانت مجرد مرحلة اجتزناها لنقع في مصير هو اسوأ كثيرا؟