Only in London

by Hanan Al-Shaykh

Book Overview

Four strangers meet on a turbulent flight from Dubai to London: Amira, a canny Moroccan prostitute; Lamis, a 30-year old Iraqi divorcee; Nicholas, an English expert on Islamic art; and Samir, a Lebanese man who is delivering a monkey on a mission he doesn't fully understand. Once safely on British soil, Lamis and Nicholas fall in love, Samir chases after blond British youths, and Amira reinvents herself as a princess, the better to lure clients at...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385721218
• ISBN13: 9780385721219
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

A Comic Exploration of Exile

I'm stunned more people haven't commented on this book...Through the lives of four passengers returning to London from the Arab world, Lebanese author al-Shaykh displays a deep concern with issues of exile, memory, language,freedom, desire, and ultimately identity. Each of the three main Arab characters have spent most of their lives playing roles. Lamis, a newly divorced 30-year old Iraqi, is returning to London where she's lived for twelve years in to pick up the pieces of her life after briefly fleeing to Dubai after her divorce. Having thrown off her stifling life as a young trophy wife to a wealthy older man, she's unsure how to maintain her role as mother and what to do with her life.Amira is a high-end Moroccan prostitute who is coming to the realization that her looks won't last forever. She embarks on a comic and cunning scheme to pose as a princess in a royal family in order to con wealthy Arab men out of large sums of cash. She helps monkey-smuggling newcomer Samir navigate Arab London. He's a Lebanese man who has concealed his homosexuality for years by marrying and fathering five children. Released in liberated London, his flamboyant and cross-dressing nature comes bubbling up to great comic effect. The final piece of the puzzle is Nicholas, a British employee of Sotheby's, who is also an antiquities consultant for an Omani prince.The lives of the foursome intertwine, with Lamis and Nicholas falling in love. Their relationship forms the nominal core of the book, and while Lamis' inner turmoil and fears, social awkwardness, and cross-cultural problems come across pitch perfect, Nicholas remains a bit of an enigma, and is the most unsatisfying of the characters. At the same time, Samir moves in with Amira to become her majordomo while pursuing young men. As their tales play out, one gets a real sense of the difficulties of faced by exiles-although it must be noted that no one in this book lacks for money. Indeed, while one gets a sense of what the lives of London's Arab elite is like, it's a totally different world from that of the average immigrant or refugee. Still, it's a refreshing view of Arabs (sprinkled liberally with comic scenes and moments) unlikely to be familiar to most Westerners. The writing is easy and natural, with none of the stiltedness that often emerges in translations, kudos to translator Catherine Cobham.

A definite winner

This book was wonderful. Though it was originally written in Arabic, the novel does not seem to have lost anything in the translation. It was definitely a page turner, and therefore I highly recommend it.