A Line in the River

Reviews / Votes

A highly readable and authoritative celebration of a little-understood country and its capital city * Geographical * A wonderfully subtle exploration of place, identity and memory -- PD Smith * Guardian * In his attempts to rediscover the city of his memory and explore its fissile present, [Mahjoub] paints a rich portrait of Khartoum's citizens, from the dispossessed poor to the oil-rich elite ... A Line in the River is much more than a travelogue as the author explores Sudan's history, religion and culture in what is a subtle exploration of a sense of place and the meaning of belonging * New Internationalist * Jamal Mahjoub's absorbing portrait of Khartoum is equally as intimate and painfully detached as the writer's own relationship with his birthplace. Both his city and his book are enthralling in their complexities and their subtlety. A Line in the River provides an enticing first encounter for those readers who have never seen the confluence of the Niles - but it is also an affecting and heartfelt reminder, for those of us who have passed time in Khartoum, why it is we long and fear for it so deeply. I have been waiting more than fifty years for this book -- Jim Crace A Line in the River is a fine and very readable celebration of a city that has never had its fair share of attention. There is something bracing about the way Jamal Mahjoub awakens our interest in somewhere we know so little about, and about which there is so much we ought to know. He tells the story of Khartoum and Sudan from both an African and a western perspective which makes the book informative and accessible, and always held together by the intimacy of his personal voyage of discovery -- Michael Palin A Line in the River combines lyrical and evocative memoir with a nuanced exploration of a country's complex history, politics and religion. The result is both captivating and revelatory' * Timeless Travels *