Season of Migration to the North
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 hi...
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.
Tayeb Salih was a Sudanese author who shot to fame through his novel ‘Season of Migration to the North’. He was often described as the ‘genius of the modern Arab novel’ by literary critics. Coming from a humble background of religious educators and small farmers, Tayeb Salih set his storylines grounded to his hometown, outlining the communal rural life. In a period when social ...
Tayeb Salih was a Sudanese author who shot to fame through his novel ‘Season of Migration to the North’. He was often described as the ‘genius of the modern Arab novel’ by literary critics. Coming from a humble background of religious educators and small farmers, Tayeb Salih set his storylines grounded to his hometown, outlining the communal rural life. In a period when social criticism, bitter realities of life and committed literature dominated Arabic literature, he broke the monotony with his distinct ideologies of his cultural background and religious upbringing. After a stint in teaching, journalism and broadcasting, he took to writing and authored some of the most acclaimed literary works. ‘Mawsim al-Hijra ila al-Shamal’ (or ‘Season of Migration to the North’) became his classic work of fiction of his literary career, which made him one of the greatest Arabic authors of the 20th century. Despite being the top novelist in the Arab world, his works were hardly recognized in the US. Nevertheless, such was his popularity that his novels have seen translations in more than 20 languages. Some of the novels authored by him include ‘Urs al-Zayn’, ‘Al-Rajul al Qubrosi’, ‘Doumat Wad Hamid’, and ‘A Handful of Dates’. He introduced a Yearly Award to encourage and appreciate young and budding writers