Season Of Migration To The North

At some point in the recent past I read an interesting review about Tayeb Salih's Season Of Migration To The North (1966), so I finally got a copy and read it. And it true to form, it was an interesting read about identity and "the other," colonialism, Islam, Africa, and the collision with the west. After years of study in the west the narrator, a Sudanese, returns to his small village on the Nile. When he returns he finds that a mysterious stranger has moved into his village. This man, Mustafa turns out to have had a fascinating past seducing English women some of whom died or took their own lives a direct result of their relationship with him. It turns out that he had a brilliant career as an economist, but has retired to the remote village and settled into a typical Muslin life with a local women who has given him two sons. After this chance meeting with the narrator, he names him custodian of his family and estate when he dies swimming a flood. The west has changed both men and that is the bond that ties them together. The novel calls to mind other works such as Othello, which is directly referenced in the book, as well as Camus's The Stranger. The Arabic oral storytelling tradition is evident in the narrative as well, and this reminds me of the Paul Bowles translation of of a man's oral story called A Life Full of Holes. A fascinating look at Islamic Africa and clash between civilizations