I had mixed feelings about these stories - there are 13 - something of a usual number in short story collections. So my favourite overall was "Expecting to Give", it's about a young woman pregnant for the first time, waiting for her husband to return from the oil rig where he works. Like several of the stories this one is set in the north of Scotland, there's no specific mention of city but I'll assume it's Aberdeen like the others. I liked this because it captures so exactly those feelings and

A collection of short stories about Egyptian natives and immigrants, who either revisit their country or are holding on to the last thread of connection to their homeland.I really liked Aboulela's writing style. Her writing has a distinct nostalgic yet powerful touch to it, which even gave me goosebumps. I always used to think why immigrants weren't keen on knowing their culture and homeland, but this book changed my entire perception on that topic. The generation gap and the problems arising wi...

This book is a compilation of short stories. The endearing aspect of the book is that the stories are about people and circumstances you can identify with. And yet, almost none of the stories exploit the potential the build up offers - skimming the surface of characterisation or relationships. Quite a few deal with multi-cultural relationships and yet you are left feeling there is something missing. Character building, tempo and lasting impressions are more difficult to create in short stories.

I'm not a fan of short stories however being an expat the title appealed to me. Thirteen short stories on being Elsewhere Home. With them all being based in the UK and the Middle East I could really relate to them. The first one really touched me, I felt I was back in Egypt, I could almost smell it. The B and P mix up. Blease. Brought back so many memories. I enjoyed these stories, I felt the author really got to heart of the complicated mix of feeling you experience when your Elsewhere Home.A v...

These short stories cover a variety of characters who find themselves living away from their homeland or their parent's homeland. A variety of situations are covered of people who miss their families, of those who have moved on, those who cope and those who don't. These stories tell of the complexities of life for people who are different, their feelings towards religion, and how they deal with separation, racism and bigotry within and outside of their communities. The book left me with the remi...

!! NOW AVAILABLE !! Leila Aboulela’s collection of short stories in Elsewhere Home focuses on the sorrow of people who have left their homeland, and live a life that, for them, is emotionally somewhere in between their adopted home and the home of their heart, always yearning for some part of home. The alienation of living in a land unlike the one they were accustomed to, and finding a way to hold onto one’s identity without upsetting the balance of life for all. ”Her country disturbed him. It

This punchy, yet poised,  collection of short stories by Leila Aboulela explores displacement of a variety of different types; the displacement felt by a young English-Egyptian girl on her trips back to Egypt, of not really belonging and yet mysteriously drawn to her mother-land, of a young English woman recently converted to Islam, of the Scotsman who feels hopelessly disaffected when visiting his fiancee's family in Khartoum  and of the displacement felt by so many immigrants as they leave the...

Such beautiful stories, but what else does one expect from Leila Aboulela?! I’m supposed to review this elsewhere so I’ll keep this short and say: please read this. Aboulela takes you to Sudan, Egypt, England, Scotland, and the UAE through her words and along the way humanises regions and a religion so maligned and poorly understood in the West. My favourites:- Summer Maze- The Ostrich- Souvenirs- The MuseumAlso highly recommend:- Something Old, Something New- Pages of Fruit

I hadn’t heard the name till someone suggested this book to me. But ever since, I have come across her name multiple times. Elsewhere, Home is an anthology of 13 short stories. The stories are taken up from every day struggles of Sudanese who leave their countries to seek their future in some western country, which is not merely a cultural shock for most of them but also religious one. Hence they find themselves hanging in two boats at the same time, unable to cope up with life to their satisfac...

As expected, a fluid style of writing, the right dose of description and all that. I'm just a bit bored with the themes, Sudanese expatriation, homesickness, goody goody wives and mothers, Islam in inter racial love or marriage.Seems like a lot of themes to complain about? But believe me, I read quite a few of her books and I would like to see her write out of her comfort zone and what she actually knows.

Whenever Hamid was stressed he changed into a clown. The haha of laughter covered problems. Haha had wheels...to slide and escape on. from chapter 6These 19 longish short stories are not exactly or obviously connected. At some point the attentive reader will begin to feel a certain familiarity in the territory and with the characters even. Didn't we see that woman with her little dog over there by the bakery? Isn't that the man from the diplomats party, was it in Cairo or London? Perhaps it was

Thanks to NetGalley for providing this arc!Review: http://evelynreads.com/review-elsewhe...

Elsewhere HomeRaw and emotional, its a collection of short stories about; a child of immigrants trying to adapt with her homeland, learning the heritage, a person whom adopted the land no matter how hard it is after falling in love with an egyptian, and much more.I have mixed feelings about this book and its always hard to review short stories books. But her empathetic writings are charming. My favourite would be about a Sudanese pregnant wife living in the West who sacrificed her social life, j...

Elsewhere, Home by Leila Aboulela is a collection of thirteen short stories dealing with variations of the same theme: immigrants negotiating their presence in an unfamiliar country while feeling the tug of home with its familiar sights, sounds, smells, and textures. The stories illustrate the challenges and rewards of being an immigrant in a foreign land. Aboulela captures the alienation and loneliness of immigrants as they straddle between two cultures. They struggle to assimilate in their ado...

„Elsewhere, Home” is a collection of 13 short stories about Egyptian and Sudanese immigrants and natives. And let me tell you one thing – I’m not usually a fan of short stories. These, however, had the author’s expert knowledge and experience going for them and therefore they were worthy reads. They explored the precarious line between assimilation and cultivating the connection one needs to have to their homeland. The clash of the had-been and what now is. The constant struggle for the older ge...

He was by nature cautious, wanting new things but held back by a vague mistrust. It was easier for his parents to accept that he was in love with a Muslim girl than it was to accept that he was in love IslamMaybe this is what getting older means, becoming disappointed in our own selves.People, I am sure, had said to you, "I devoured your novel," bit your novel devoured me. What an exceptionally brilliant, cohesive, intelligent and well written short story collection. Lelila Aboulela's ability to...

Aboulela maintains a certain tone...how to describe it? It's gentle and "soft-spoken" but with impeccable pacing, the tension and urgency build and then release.These short stories are beautiful pieces of writing but they end too soon for my taste. My favorite stories were: Summer Maze, The Ostrich, The Boy from the Kebab House, Coloured Lights, and The Museum. I prefer her novel-length stories where in the course of a book, she draws out the reading experience.Thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGa...

All in all I am not as impressed with Leila Aboulela’s collection of short stories “Elsewhere, Home” as I hoped to be. I read some of them over ten years ago in her first, now out of print, collection “Coloured Lights” (and this title story remains my favourite). They showed a new world for me then. I didn’t know any writer who would tackle the topics she did, write about bridges between cultures in such a simple and honest way. Living in London then I saw Sudanese women all the time and Aboulel...

A collection of 13 heartfelt stories which move between Khartoum, Cairo, London, and Scotland. Although they are bound by similar themes like immigrant loneliness, a longing for home, and abiding faith, there is no sameness or reader fatigue that sets in — each one stands independent of the other. This book was a wonderful introduction to Leila Aboulela’s writing.

A nice collection of short stories that evoke the overlapping worlds of the Western and Eastern cultures. My favorites are The Ostrich and The Museum.