I Think of You

Brilliant collection of Short Stories by Ahdaf Souief. I bought the book thinking it was new collection of short stories but as I read the stories felt familiar. After a while I realized this is just the American publishing of Ahdaf's short stories from her very first book Aisha and also from Sand Piper. As I read or re-read these stories, I thoroughly enjoyed them. Most of the characters were later resurrected, or rather fully developed, in Ahdaf Souif's masterpiece "In the Eye of the Sun". What I love about Ahdaf Souief the most, is that she appear to write mostly for herself, she is not a marketing oriented author, she is not writing to be accessed by as large an audience as possible. You need to want to get into her own world; you need to try to understand her language, her pace and her approach. The reader needs to work at it to get to see the beauty of her lyrical language, the characters and ultimately the novel. I have never read anyone better than Souif when it comes to a true and genuine bi-cultural sensibility, her skill with the language and her intelligence in writing are truly remarkable.