JEWELS: Leila Aboulela

 

As a child, on special occasions, I used to wear brooches pinned to my chest. These brooches were designed especially for little girls. I can remember a flower, an elephant and an ice cream cone. I still have in my possession a bird perched on a branch and my favourite the winking cat. In the tradition of cartoons, the bird has an enlarged head and a smaller body. The head is in gold and the body turquoise. The ruby eye, one only because the bird is looking sideways, is fringed with a spray of diamond dust for an eyebrow.  The bird’s golden toes are curled around the arch of a gold branch. One of its wings holds a flower whose centre is turquoise and its petals tiny pearls. As an adult I can see now that the bird is more exquisite than the cat which lost one side of its whiskers over time. But the cat was my favourite.  Similarly designed to the bird, it was bigger and heavier. When I wore it, the turquoise belly was a pleasure to stroke. The cat’s luxuriant tail was a pillow that it could sit on. And best of all it looked straight at me and winked.

Made with gold, flecks of diamonds and precious stones, these childhood pieces of jewellery, often gifts, were valuable and though too young to fully understand this, I was made aware that I must look after them, that I must not lose or damage them. So naturally no running around, no getting dishevelled or careless. The brooches weighed me down, they were, despite their frivolous appearance, a responsibility. 

I outgrew them fast enough and yet I was never able to bond as much with other pieces of jewellery.  When my own daughter was little, it seemed old-fashioned to pin these brooches on her clothes. None of the girls her age wore any.  So the winking cat stayed locked away. Valuable, frivolous and no longer appropriate nor fashionable, it remains fastened securely to my childhood.  

Leila Aboulela was born in Cairo, grew up in Khartoum and moved in her mid-twenties to Aberdeen. She is the author of five novels, Bird Summons, The Translator, a New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year, The Kindness of Enemies, Minaret and Lyrics Alley, Fiction Winner of the Scottish Book Awards. Leila was the first winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing and her latest story collection, Elsewhere, Home won the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award. Leila’s work has been translated into fifteen languages and she was long-listed three times for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Her plays The Insider, The Mystic Life and others were broadcast on BBC Radio and her fiction included in publications such as Freeman’s, Granta and Harper’s Magazine. 

You can find out more about Leila's work here.

* A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF 2019 *

* SHORTLISTED FOR THE SALTIRE FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019 *

* LONGLISTED FOR THE HIGHLAND BOOK PRIZE 2019 *

'BIRD SUMMONS is a magic carpet ride into the forest of history and the lives of women. Deep and wild' Lucy Ellmann, Booker-shortlisted author of DUCKS, NEWBURYPORT

Salma, happily married, tries every day to fit into life in Britain. When her first love contacts her, she is tempted to risk it all and return to Egypt.

Moni gave up a career in banking to care for her disabled son, but now her husband wants to move to Saudi Arabia - where she fears her son's condition will worsen.

Iman feels burdened by her beauty. In her twenties and already in her third marriage, she is treated like a pet and longs for freedom.

On a road trip to the Scottish Highlands, the women are visited by the Hoopoe, a sacred bird whose fables from Muslim and Celtic literature compel them to question the balance between faith and femininity, love, loyalty and sacrifice.

Brilliantly imagined, intense and haunting, Bird Summons confirms Leila Aboulela's reputation as one of our finest contemporary writers.

Available now.