FMV Book Club: 'River Spirit' by Leila Aboulela

Date: 25.08.2025
Time: 18:00-21:00
Host: Female Minority Voices



> Facebook event

Welcome to August’s FMV Book Club meeting!

This month, we begin our fall season with a powerful novel set in 19th-century Sudan.

August’s Book Pick: River Spirit by Leila Aboulela
Genre: Historical Fiction
From: Sudan

About the book:
Set against the backdrop of Sudan’s Mahdist revolt, River Spirit follows a young woman named Akuany who is orphaned and enslaved during a time of upheaval. Taken in by a kind-hearted merchant, she soon finds herself swept into the tide of resistance and revolution.

As empires clash and faith becomes politicized, the novel explores themes of liberation, identity, religious conviction, and womanhood in a time of war. With lyrical prose and unforgettable characters, Aboulela gives voice to Sudanese women too often left out of historical narratives.

This is not only a story about survival — it's about belief, rebellion, and reclaiming one's place in a world determined to erase you.

About the author:
Leila Aboulela is a Sudanese-Egyptian writer raised in Khartoum. Her fiction centers Muslim and African women’s inner lives, and River Spirit is one of the few English-language novels to explore Sudanese history from a local and gendered perspective.

Why we chose it:
Sudan is currently experiencing one of the world’s most devastating — and underreported — humanitarian crises. This novel offers crucial historical context and emotional insight through the lens of a girl-turned-woman living through revolution.

Haven’t read the book? Come anyway!
FMV Book Club is about thoughtful conversations sparked by the book’s themes — not perfection. Whether you’ve read it all, just started, or want to listen and learn, you are warmly welcome. Bring a friend!

Join our book club here.

---

This event is free and open to all. 

The Bergen Assembly office is universally accessible from street level and our toilets are gender neutral.

---