Coloured Lights

Again and again, characters from different cultures and beliefs are drawn together without being able to shrug off an inherent suspicion. The title story tells of a tragic accident at a Khartoum wedding; in another, romance blossoms in a Scottish kebab shop. The characters in Coloured Lights are engaging, sometimes painfully, sometimes comically with new encounters. Many of the stories deal with the emotional intricacies of young women; their feeling of being caught between competing worlds and their attempts to feel at home.

All eleven stories illuminate the subtleties of Muslim immigrant experience in comic culture clash and deep spiritual struggles, from the title story, which tells of the tragic death of the narrator’s brother; in another, romance is tentative in a Scottish kebab shop. One of the stories, ‘The Museum’, won the first Caine Prize for African Writing (2000).