Product Description

In Thatcher's "London", Lilly, a white Muslim nurse, struggles in a state of invisible exile. As Ethiopian refugees gradually fill the flats of the housing estate where she lives, Lilly tentatively begins to share with them her longing for the home she herself once had in Africa and her heartbreaking search for her missing lover. Back in Haile Selassie's "Ethiopia", the young Lilly, born in the 1950s to British parents, now orphaned and full of religious conviction, finds herself living in the city of Harar. She is drawn to the idealistic young doctor, Aziz, himself an outsider in the community. But then convulsions of a new revolutionary order separate them, sending Lilly to an England she has never seen, while Aziz disappears. Camilla Gibb's evocation of the distinctive world of the ancient city and of its unique religion and culture is vivid and rich. She draws us just as completely into the mind of the older Lilly, emotionally paralysed by her loss. The result is a fascinating and remarkably moving portrayal of a life lived at the cusp of two cultures.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #153788 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

From the Publisher
Number One in Canada

From the Inside Flap
In Thatcher's London, Lilly, a white Muslim nurse, struggles in a state of invisible exile. As Ethiopian refugees gradually fill the flats of the housing estate where she lives, Lilly tentatively begins to share with them her longing for the home she herself once had in Africa and her heartbreaking search for her missing lover.

Back in Haile Selassie's Ethiopia, the young Lilly, born in the 1950s to British parents, now orphaned and full of religious conviction, finds herself living in the city of Harar. She is drawn to the idealistic young doctor, Aziz, himself an outsider in the community. But then convulsions of a new revolutionary order separate them, sending Lilly to an England she has never seen, while Aziz disappears.

Camilla Gibb's evocation of the distinctive world of the ancient city and of its unique religion and culture is vivid and rich. She draws us just as completely into the mind of the older Lilly, emotionally paralysed by her loss. The result is a fascinating and remarkably moving portrayal of a life lived at the cusp of two cultures.

From the Back Cover
Praise for Camilla Gibb:

Sweetness in the Belly

‘A deeply imagined immersion into the lives of people for whom war, poverty, marginalization and exile are the commonplace trials. Gibb's understanding of this world seems almost uncanny but it is her compassion for her characters that impressed me the most. Here is a novel that challenges and disturbs as it enlightens and uplifts. A really exceptional achievement.’ Barbara Gowdy

The Petty Details of So and So’s Life
'Gibb is surely one of the most talented writers around... Her novel [is] a deeply moving survey of what makes our hearts beat fast and slow. She can do funny, she can do sad, she can do sex. I suspect that there is little that this wonderful woman cannot do.' The Times

'It's Gibb's gentle empathy that makes this novel about growing up so moving... Gibb's humanity is served by [her] unassuming but lyrical style.' Observer

'[A] funny, twisted, heart-breaking novel' Independent

Mouthing the Words
‘It is a testament to Camilla Gibb’s ability as a writer that a book with such uncompromising subject matter should be so readable. I found myself turning the pages eagerly… Mouthing the Words is a novel that haunts. It should be read with caution.’ Mail on Sunday

‘An arresting study of a doomed and stolen childhood’ Sunday Times

‘[An] excellent novel…strikingly different… Offers only the most telling of… desperate and funny details and a tentative happily ever after that is not false or forced’ Observer

Customer Reviews

Between cultures
Sweetness in the Belly is the moving and heart-warming story of Lilly Abdal, told in her own words, adding to it a special liveliness, directness and authenticity. Camilla Gibb has succeeded in creating a rich and detailed account of the life of a young woman caught between cultures and identities. Her narrative alternates between periods during the four dramatic years in Ethiopia and those during ten years in London, after leaving Ethiopia in 1974, at the end of Emperor Haile Selassi's reign. Gibb's novel is fast moving and particularly compelling in its portrayal of Lilly's life in the holy city of Harar. At the same time, she is conveying in-depth insights into the respective realities there and in England and establishes the religious and cultural context that surround the heroine with great subtlety and credibility.

Lilly, born in England but, after the murder of her peripatetic parents in Morocco, remains there and is raised at a Muslim shrine by the Great Abdal, a Sufi teacher, to become a devout Muslim. She is eight years old. When forced to leave Morocco at the age of sixteen due to political upheavals, she embarks on a pilgrimage across the Sahara desert to the ancient holy city of Harar in Ethiopia. Not being accepted as a white girl in the household of the local sheikh, she is sent off to live with a poor cousin of one of his wives. Nouria, single mother of four, subsists in a shack in a deprived part of town. Gibb evokes the sounds and smells of the place, creating an authentic portrait of the harsh life of its inhabitants. Nouria and the neighbours start off being hostile of this "farenji" who knows the Qur'an better than they do. It takes Lilly considerable time and effort to be accepted. Seeking to belong where she can feel emotionally an physically safe, she immerses herself completely in their world and accepts the customs of her surroundings. Through Lilly's eyes the reader is introduced to a culture, rich in tradition and rituals. Not all of them are acceptable to Lilly, given her Sufi upbringing and she argues against them. Political developments in Ethiopia and a new circle of friends also challenge her traditional beliefs and behaviour. When she develops romantic feelings for the young attractive doctor she has to chart out her own way.

Alternating with accounts of her time in Harar, as she grows into an adult (1970-1974), Lilly narrates her life in London, beginning fifteen years after leaving Ethiopia. Now working as a nurse and living in a poor housing estate, she remains an outsider who does not fit into British reality. Committed to preserve her religion and her Ethiopian culture, she befriends Amina, her Ethiopian refugee neighbour and creates an oasis of "home" around them. While Amina and her family adjust more and more to the western lifestyle, Lilly clings to the memories of her previous life and the people in it. But developments force her to reassess and look into the future rather than hanging on to the past. Will she be able to do it?

Gibb's rendering of the East African refugee scene is as realistic as her portrayal of conditions in Harar. Her novel is grounded and enriched by her thorough research and personal experiences with the cultures and the places she evokes. Ethiopians went through famine and deprivations during the early 1907s, a time that ended in the uprising against and eventual removal of the Emperor. Gibb brings this context into the novel without overburdening the reader. She finds a convincing balance between the personal and the general keeping the book a page turner from beginning to end. [Friederike Knabe]

excellent read
excellent about muslim life and culture from an muslim african perspective, to be read alongside monica ali and zadie smith. Especially in current times with so much confusion and misunderstanding about muslims and muslim life , culture, immigrants, identity, roots.

Fascinating account of another time and place
An unusual setting for a novel - Morocco, Ethiopia and London from 1970 to 1990, amidst the carnage and destruction of Northern Africa. But it's not a horror story, more a story of survival against the odds.
Well written and totally engrossing.

Lily is born of English / Irish parents and after their tragic deaths is raised as a devout Muslim in the shrine of the Great Abdul. Her childhood has been spent travelling from country to country like a gypsy but when she is orphaned she is in Morocco and makes her home there until political unrest forces her to travel East. Hussein, her travelling companion is a few years older than her but not much more worldy wise. Together they arrive in Harrar, Ethiopia.
Then follows a fascinating account of her efforts to integrate as a "Farenji" or foreigner.
Interwoven with this account is her subsequent life as a refugee in London. Here she struggles with the effects of the war and copes by helping others search for loved ones - all the while living in hope that a certain person will appear on the lists of refugee names.

After a slow start I was rivetted, finding it difficult to drag myself from one existence to the other as the chapters changed. Some of the politics lost me a bit, I wish I knew more about this history, but this was a fascinating start.
Highly recommended.