Salma, Moni and Iman are members of their local Arabic Speaking Muslim Women’s Group in Scotland, and when Salma organises a trip to visit Lady Evelyn Cobbold, the first British female revert to perform Hajj ‘s grave, everyone except Moni and Iman drop out of the trip upon seeing the grave has been defaced.

Salma, Moni and Iman embark on the trip themselves. Three women of differing ages and their own family circumstances and problems. Each woman believes her circumstances are the hardest, and fails to see their own shortcomings while behaving self-righteous and judgmental towards others.

Their trip turns out to be a journey in which each woman has to rediscover herself and collectively learn to understand the true meaning of friendship.

Towards the end of the novel the narrative structure takes a dramatic shift as Aboulela uses magic realism. It was indeed surreal; at one point I felt like I was tripping! You can definitely see that Aboulela was inspired by certain fables, Islamic and Sufi folk tales, and the hoopoe, a bird mentioned in the Qur’an, plays a special role in this novel. A highly enjoyable read.

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