River Spirit

January 2, 2023
The action-packed latest from Aboulela (Bird Summons) turns on Sudan’s religious civil war in the late 19th century. Akuany is 11 when raiders from the north of Sudan burn her village of Malakal to the ground. During the attack, Akuany and her younger brother, Bol, are kept safe by a merchant named Yaseen and the river, “the spirit of who she was.” Akuany, Bol, and Yaseen then travel north to Al-Ubayyid, where Akuany is sold into slavery and renamed Zamzam, meaning “holy water” in Arabic. On the periphery, a fringe group believes their leader Muhammad Ahmed to be the Mahdi, an Islamic prophet who appears at the end of times to rid the world of evil and injustice. As the Mahdists overtake the country, claiming city after city, Yaseen—now a jurist for an Ottoman chief—must decide whether to falsely claim a zealot as a messiah or to deny him and face certain death, all while trying to figure out how to free Zamzam, whom he’d sworn to protect. Aboulela casts a scrutinous and perceptive eye on the motives of religious leaders and colonial forces, and she layers the narrative with a rich blend of languages and cultures. This brims with drama and nuance.