Islam in the Eastern African Novel

EMAD MIRMOTAHARI Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of English at Tulane University, USA.

"This book will reward anyone interested in gaining a better understanding of Islam in East African literatures. Proponents of close readings and thematic studies will find this book extremely useful as the analysis is a remarkable effort in rescuing Islam from the margins of cultural theory, allowing the voice of African Muslims from the eastern African coast to be emphatically heard. But most of all, Mirmotahari's sensitive study of Islam is a timely rejoinder to critics of African literatures who have repeatedly engaged in poorly informed interpretations and readings of Islam in African literary fiction, stemming mostly from a lack of proper knowledge and sensitivity to the religion and its practitioners." - Contemporary Islam "The most comprehensive study of Islam in Eastern African fiction to date, Mirmotahari's book is a welcome addition to the region's re-visioning of its multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious history. Well researched and well-argued, this book provides new perspectives on the work of Nuruddin Farah and will hopefully encourage teachers to introduce lesser-taught authors such as Abdulrazak Gurnah and M.G. Vassanji in the classroom." - Gaurav Desai, Tulane University "Islam in the Eastern African Novel is a superb study that extends and deepens our understanding of the African novel, while at the same time illuminating a panorama of African history that strikingly reveals the inadequacy of the Atlantic paradigm for comprehending the broader expanse of the black world." - Robert Elliot Fox, Southern Illinois University

• Paradises Lost: A Portrait of the Precolony in Abdulrazak Gurnah's Paradise The Other Diaspora in Abdulrazak Gurnah's Admiring Silence and By the Sea Situational Identities: Exiled Selves in Abdulrazak Gurnah's Pilgrims Way and Memory of Departure 'Men With Civilizations But Without Countries': Afro-Indians at History's End  Revisiting Nurrudin Farah's From a Crooked Rib A Typology of Political Islam: Religion and the State in Nuruddin Farah's Variations on the Theme of the African Dictatorship Trilogy