The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih. The book can be found on the Norwegian 100 Greatest Book List and My Personal Book List.
I believe that Season of Migration to the North may be the first book I have read that was originally written in Arabic. And this book almost makes me want to understand Arabic because the prose was so beautifully written that I can imagine it would be tenfold better in the original language. The story is about a man, the narrator, who encounters a stranger in his community, Mustafa. From that point forward, Mustafa's history becomes of paramount importance to the narrator, so much so that Mustafa has some degree of influence over the narrator, as well as many other people. I really enjoyed this book. The prose is wonderful and the story is engaging. There were a few parts that had me squeamish and I'm not how how much of them were related to the Arabic culture of the time (set in the 1920's, published in 1969) or how much of it was just inclusions by the author. I imagine a bit of both. The treatment of women in the story was also heavily dated, but also surprisingly progressive in many ways. However, with all that aside, this book has left me with many questions about the story and Mustafa's influence, which, while the story appears to address, I don't believe the author fully answers. Leaving a bit of a mystery especially once the ending comes about. Overall, I'd say this is a must read.
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