Tayeb Salih

al-Ṭayyib Ṣāliḥ

aṭ-Ṭaiyib Ṣāliḥ

An arresting work by a major Arab novelist.

Season of Migration to the North

Frederik Van den Bril

Once in a while you come across this special kind of novel that seems to be able to bend time, or rather to slow it down. Rather than a story, these books present you with a given moment in time. Everything slows down, and the books gets a dream-like quality, but the picture it paints is all too vivid. Most importantly, a lot has passed before the novel and a lot will pass after that. It conjures up a world that is still there, it presents you characters that actually exist. Tayeb Salih's Season of Migration to the North is that kind of book. The other novels I could think of that do this are V.S. Naipaul's enchanting book 'A Bend in the River' or Marquez' masterpiece 100 Years of Solitude.

I picked it up by chance in a bookshop in Berlin because I liked the cover and the description and most of all how the novel started: "It was, gentlemen, after a long absence, seven years to be exact, during which time I was studying in Europe - that I returned to my people". The author struck me with this bold and confident voice - there's a powerful knack for melancholia and wisdom there that I absolutely love.

The novel for sure is an important exploration of Edward Said's concept of Orientalism. The book tells the story of Mustafa Sa'eed, who thinks he has found the key to using the Western view of (and longing for) the Orient to his (sexual) advantage but ultimately it leads to his own tragic demise. No doubt a very important book in understanding our post-colonial world. The ending of the book leaves you gasping for air, just like the narrator. A book that I will no doubt want to reread sooner or later.