The subject matter of this book got me immediately. As an ESL teacher, I am always interested in the perspectives and stories of those whose lives are torn between two places: immigrants carry the country they left and the country they currently live in. On top of that this book also highlights the very much under-served topic of the Muslim immigrant experience. I appreciate the value in the topics this book explores.

<b>Elsewhere Home</b> is a book of short stories detailing the experiences of immigrants from countries such places as Egypt, the Sudan, etc to the British Isles. Aboulela's writing style is engaging and, after the painful prose of my previous read, refreshing. I wish this was a novel instead because I think I would have enjoyed it that much more.

I confess I do not often read short stories. I am the kind of reader that wants to get fully immersed in one long tale. That said, I have read short stories before and have enjoyed them, but... they are never my favorite. This is the case here and I cannot decide if it is a fault of the book or my very clear bias.

I will say some of the stories were lovely and I WISHED wholeheartedly that they were longer. But other stories felt too light or underdeveloped to me. Some of the stories felt like previous stories in the book. So, overall, it ended up being a mixed bag. In my opinion, it was not quite a perfect collection of stories.

As I said, I think Aboulela is a great writer and well worth reading, I do not think short stories are perhaps the best showcase of her talent. If Aboulela's next release is a novel though, I am in.

The stories in this book are fiction, but they may as well not be. As I read them, they didn't feel as stories someone had imagined, but as a retelling of somebody's experiences. The characters felt real, human, someone you could meet at any time. No extravagant situations, just depictions of cultures meeting and acknowledging their differences.
I felt "Elsewhere home" is a poetic description for immigration.

I started reading this book with great anticipation. I thought it well written but half way through the book I reluctantly abandoned it. At the outset I must admit that I read fiction for enjoyment. I felt that the book was jumping all over the show and going nowhere. There were so many characters and unless I wrote all their names down with character references it was just too difficult to keep a grip on the storyline.

I dislike short stories. I don’t read reviews before I read a book so I was unaware that this was a collection of them. It didn’t say that in the book summary. And they aren’t even really short stories. Most are a page or two each. Even less than what I’d consider a short story. I really disliked most of them. There was just nothing all that interesting in any of them that held my attention.

Not for me. When I requested a review copy, the fact that it was a collection of short stories was not in the description. I'm not a big fan of short stories generally. I read several of them but it was not really to my taste as there's no plot or character development, more a quick glimpse into a life.
Thanks to the publisher for a review copy.

This is a collection of short stories, the theme of many of them being the reconciliation of European and Arab culture - within a marriage, the individual and, at times, both. I appreciated the insight that went into all of these stories. Overall, I really enjoyed this collection – most of them I really liked though I found my mind wandering as I read others. This is a quick, enjoyable read - I would recommend it. Thank you, NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review this collection.

The stories are written beautifully. The longing for a place called home is portrayed so well. The definition of home is challenging for a first generation diaspora who goes back to visit a parent's country of birth.

I didn't realise that this was a collection of short stories when I first started it so was expecting the first few characters to come together at some point early on. When it didn't I focused on other aspects that I liked, such as the authors style of writing, she was able to draw me into the intimate lives, loves and trials of the many characters in this book and at times I hoped that certain characters stories would continue and left me wanting more. I could also draw parallels to Jojo Moyes book Paris for One which I also really enjoyed. I will definitely be looking out for more books by this author.

Short stories are experiencing a renaissance, their bite-sized narratives fitting into our shortened attention spans, the print version of our preference for sitting down for an episode rather than a movie (and then watching until we've finished the series).

Aboulela's collection of stories features people living between England, Scotland, Egypt, and Sudan. Most of the narrators are women, but not all. Some are in couples uniting Africa and Europe. Several involve characters native to Africa who are transplanted to England or Scotland for school or work--forced to leave home in search of opportunity.

The collection begins with the story of a young girl and her mother making their annual pilgrimage to Cairo to visit family. Nadia's mother laughs at her daughter's reaction to the realities of Cairo and Nadia teases her mother for her flawed English pronunciation. The man who comes to Sudan to marry his bride and finds himself facing unexpected cultural boundaries and the need to prove his own connection, his legitimacy. The young girl who braves expectations to wear glasses. The collection ends with a story of a woman inspired by an author whose characters go far beyond the realities of the author herself. After her second opportunity to meet her favorite author, the narrator writes, "It made me miss the voice on the page, the fluid lives you had written down. There was nothing more I could take from you. Nothing in addition to what I already had on my shelves." In the pages of Elsewhere, Home, Aboulela has offered us a great deal.

Aboulela has met the challenge of Chimamanda Adichie's "Danger of a Single Story." Her collection allows us to peek into the lives of several "outsiders," whether native to the UK or Egypt and Sudan. Unlike the fossilized colonial view of Africa confronted in "The Museum," Aboulela's Africa, through the eyes of those who call it home and those who visit it, is modern and specific, far from the pastoral images of savannah animals and silent, stoic native safari guides.

Elsewhere, Home is so worth the read. I rather suspect it will be the choice of book clubs and likely assigned in many college classrooms.

Finished 8/5/18

Advance copy courtesy of netgalley.com

I loved Leila Aboulela's other books. I wanted to love "Elsewhere, Home" as well. However, this book just felt disjointed and I don't think it is as goid as her others.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

These short stories cover a variety of characters who find themselves living away from their homeland or their parent's homeland. A variety of situations are covered of people who miss their families, of those who have moved on, those who cope and those who don't. These stories tell of the complexities of life for people who are different, their feelings towards religion, and how they deal with separation, racism and bigotry within and outside of their communities. The book left me with the reminder that everyone's journey is different, life is not fair and kindness is a gift.