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The narrator of the novel is a young man returning from studies in the North (Europe) to his village near the Nile in Sudan. He periodically visits the village of his childhood, while working in Khartoum. The village did not change much since his departure, his family and his tribe are still there, the independence of Sudan and its modernization is slow to reach those parts although some progress was visible. When he first come back he discovers a new face, that of Mustafa Sa’eed, a stranger who moved to the village, married a local woman and settled for an agricultural life. Not much is known about the man’s past and our narrator becomes fascinated by the mystery surrounding this man and, one fateful night, manages to obtain a “confession� from him which will haunt all his future life. Both the narrator and Mustafa share an education abroad and the need to return to their ruts. However, Mustafa’s time in London is dark and hides a terrible secret, including terrible treatment towards Northern women.
As the Introduction written by the translator says, Season of migration to the North is an African response to the terrible Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. I was lucky to read that book a few years ago and I could spot the connections. For starters, they both involve a narrator who develops and obsession with another man with a dark soul. If in HoD the victims were the Congolese Africans, here they are replaced by European women who fall for Mustafa’s charms and are destroyed by the experience (for details I will let you read the short novel). Moreover, in both books, the writing is poetic although in this one I actually understood something. There is a fine border between real and surreal and sometimes it is difficult to distinguished between the two states.

There a few political statements as well, since the book was written after Sudan obtained independence and the white people were mostly still in power, corruption was high and progress was slow. Also, the author makes a case of the unjust treatment of women in Sudan and their lack of rights.

Tayeb Salih is considered one of the best Arabic authors and I can see why after reading his most known work. It might not be for everyone but I think it is worth trying,