Marcus Egan > Recent Status Updates

Australian prose has me captured at the moment, and is teaching me much.

Abdu continues to weave a story that engages me. She is somehow able to present a perspective that, whilst alien to my own becomes more familiar the further I read. I have friends and colleagues who follow Islam and I feel like I have gained more insight via Abdu's prose than for questions neither asked nor answered. Aliyah's experiences are written softly, without artifice., without any sense of promotion.

Finally getting to a book recommended to me on many occasions. I watched and enjoyed the screen adaptation last year - which prompted the purchase. Unsurprisingly, in the way of these things, the book opens a little differently, although the narrative voice is consistent with what I recall from the TV series.

This has been a highly enjoyable read so far, Abdu has a gift not only for evocative prose, but a talent for introducing sensitive topics with both gentleness and grace. As a white Australian boomer, I am being gently led through a world view that I would not otherwise have encountered. My only complaint is that a writer of this calibre shines a spotlight on the paucity of my own efforts. :-)