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3.5
The plot of the novel is a lovestory between Sammar, a widowed Muslim woman of Sudanese origin working as a translator in Aberdeen and Rae Isles, an agnostic scholar of Islam and middle-east. The novel is narrated in two parts, the first being in Aberdee and the second in Sudan. Having lost her husband in an accident four years ago and leaving her son behind in Khartoum, Sudan, Sammar is still entangled in the web of trauma and grief. For Sammar, faith is the  root of her existence. The undimishable light and the cause worthy of all her struggles. As she falls in love with a staunchly secular Rae in the hope of a new life, a second chance, the very faith becomes the cause of conflict.

Apart from grief and faith, the novel shows a nuanced representation of identity. Interestingly,  the title assumes a second role here. If you understand translation as the constant movement between languages, a migration that generate meaning in an unfamiliar language world, it can be said that Sammar, as a Muslim, Sudanese migrant woman in the Islamophobic Western society lives in constant translation. In the world of othering she lives, there is a constant attempt in Sammar's everyday life to make sense of her culture, clothing and faith.

Very often we come across characters who evoke complex, or rather ambivalent feelings for them. Characters who refuse to be catalogued by the reader. For me, Sammar is one. At times I feel appalled at her callousness. Later, it turns to empathy towards her desperation and hopefulness. Nevertheless, the novel is a powerful narrative depicting  the vulnerabilities of human beings written in a simple, often dream-like language.