"This enchanting and eye-opening new novel from Caine Prize winner Leila Aboulela follows an embattled young woman coming of age during the Mahdist War in nineteenth-century Sudan, and illuminates the tensions that shape her course: between Britain and Sudan, Christianity and Islam, colonizer and colonized. In River Spirit, Aboulela gives us the unforgettable story of a people who--against the odds and for a brief time--gained independence from foreign...

Collects three early novels by the influential English author. Burmese days: In the hermetic world of 1930s colonial Burma, a corrupt Burmese politician uses the powers of his office to win membership in a British club. Keep the aspidistra flying: A poor young Londoner, who disdains conventional lifestyles and goals, works by day in a bookstore and writes by night in a cold rented room. Coming up for air: An insurance salesman's win of a small sum...

"1914, Fiji: 25-year-old police sergeant Akal Singh would rather be anywhere but this tropical paradise. After a promising start to his career in his native India and in Hong Kong, he got sent to work in Fiji as punishment for a professional mistake he's too embarrassed to talk about. Lonely and humiliated, Akal longs for the day he can finally solve a big case and win the inspector-general's favor, thereby redeeming himself and being permitted to...