CANR
WORK TITLE: THE DIVINITIES
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.jamalmahjoub.com/
CITY: Barcelona
STATE:
COUNTRY: Spain
NATIONALITY:
LAST VOLUME: CANR 326
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born September 24, 1966, in London, England.
EDUCATION:Attended Sheffield University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Worked variously as a translator, librarian, and freelance journalist. Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, writer-in-residence, 2015.
AWARDS:Guardian African Short Story Prize; St. Malo Prix de l’Astrolabe; Mario Vargas Llosa Premio NH de Relatos; Shamus Award for Best Private Eye Novel, 2018, for Dark Waters.
WRITINGS
Contributor to the anthology Short Sentence, 2013.
SIDELIGHTS
Jamal Mahjoub was born on September 24, 1960, in London, England. He was raised in Khartoum, Sudan, where his family remained until 1990. When he received a scholarship, Mahjoub returned to England to attend Sheffield University. In addition to Sudan, Mahjoub has lived all over the world, including Denmark, Spain, and the UK. Though he was originally trained as a geologist, he has spent time working as a translator, a librarian, and a freelance journalist. Mahjoub has written a number of critically acclaimed novels, including a crime series under the pseudonym Parker Bilal.
When asked in an interview with Mike Stafford on the website BookGeeks about the best writing advice he had ever received, Mahjoub responded: “The two best pieces of advice I know are; if you think something is finished, think again. I have a feeling that comes from Elmore Leonard. I try to remember that every day. And the other one is simply read as much as you can. You can always learn something, even from bad writing.”
(open new1)In an interview in Writers and Artists, Mahjoub offered advice to aspiring writers. He posited that “writing is a constant process of learning. You never stop. And the best way of learning is to read, as widely as possible. The old adage about 10% inspiration and 90% hard work certainly applies. Writing is really about re-writing, again and again.”(close new1)
Writing as Jamal Mahjoub
His first book, Navigation of a Rainmaker, was published in 1989. In 1994, Mahjoub published a novel titled Wings of Dust, which James Gibbs, writing in World Literature Today, called “a fictional autobiography of wide scope and with a complex structure … always challenging and intelligent, often quirky and penetrating.” The Carrier —“a fast-paced and continent-spanning story of one man’s thirst for knowledge,” according to a contributor to New Internationalist—followed in 1998.
“Travelling with Djinns … is an ambitious, meditative and at times funny road novel centred on an absorbing relationship between a father and his young son … [it] promises to bring a humane and original voice to a larger readership.” wrote Maya Jaggi in the London Guardian of Mahjoub’s subsequent literary installment. The Drift Latitudes was published in 2006. Regarding this text, Paul Farley, also writing in the London Guardian, remarked: “Time, memory, music, architecture and identity are all played off one another, making the book a kind of echo chamber …. [with] characters [who] are mostly deftly drawn.”
(open new2)Mahjoub published the personal account A Line in the River: Khartoum, City of Memory in 2018. While Mahjoub spent some of his childhood in Sudan, his family left in 1989 when Omar al-Bashir came to power. The author reveals in this book his experience of returning to Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, frequently between 2008 and 2012 while the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was being implemented and exploring the place of his childhood memories and imagination. During his journey, he attempts to make sense of the past and speculate as to what the future holds for the country.
Writing in the New Internationalist, Peter Whittaker found A Line in the River to be “much more” than simply a travelogue since Mahjoub “explores Sudan’s history, religion, and culture in what is a subtle exploration of a sense of place and the meaning of belonging.” A contributor to Publishers Weekly lamented that “while there’s a Naipaulian incisiveness to his portrait of Khartoum, the town feels too malaises-tricken and soulless to hold much interest.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor referred to it as being “a beguiling, thoughtful book about a place that few people know well but that seems eminently inviting in the author’s hands.” In a review in Geographical, Jules Stewart stated: “Leaving aside the wider implications, the book is a highly readable and authoritative celebration of a little-understood country and its capital city.”(close new2)
The Golden Scales
In 2012, Mahjoub published his first crime novel, The Golden Scales, under the pen name Parker Bilal. The novel follows Makana, a Sudanese policeman who has been living on a houseboat in Cairo for the past seven years. In Cairo, Makana works as a private investigator to make ends meet. When Adil Romario, the star soccer player on the Dreem Team, goes missing, Makana is commissioned with the task of recovering him. When one of Makana’s acquaintances turns up dead, the private investigator begins to have suspicions that the murder is connected to his case and starts to dig deeper into the mystery, uncovering a web of intrigue.
A contributor to the website Review Room commented that Mahjoub’s book “is not just a mystery novel; it is much more. The book’s basic plot stems from the two mysterious disappearances, but the author develops this into a full-fledged almost literary novel touching upon subjects from personal upheaval to public politics to Islamic philosophy. … This book, as strongly built-up as it is, is quite unforgettable.” Jane Jakeman, writing in the London Independent, discussed the multilayered plot of the book and the manner in which “the various threads are brought together in a skillfully constructed narrative. This is a tremendously successful, satisfying switch of genres and at the same time a deeply moving story of suffering and exile.” A reviewer for the Economist remarked that Mahjoub’s prose “has a subtlety that is rarely found in crime novels.” A reviewer for the Bookreporter Web site also spoke of the author’s writing style: “Bilal by any name is an enthralling scribe, one who is able to write beautifully without sacrificing excitement.”
Dogstar Rising
The series continued with Dogstar Rising. It is the summer of 2001, and religious tensions in Cairo are increasing as a series of gruesome murders of young, homeless street boys in the city is linked to the Coptic community. Meanwhile, Makana has what initially appears to be a rather tedious case from a travel agency to investigate: a simple family feud over stolen money and missing letter. However, when a female employee of the agency is shot dead, her murder is linked to those of the young boys, and Makana is quickly involved in a case with repercussions from Aswan to Cairo and one that may tip the balance of life in Egypt.
“The murder mysteries are finally resolved, but what cannot be settled is the overwhelming question of the future of Egypt,” commented Jakeman in the LondonIndependent Online. Jakeman further commended the author for creating a story with “depth and resonance.” Online Euro Crime reviewer Lynn Harvey also praised Dogstar Rising, observing: “Bilal writes an exciting crime story that absorbs and informs as well as entertains. Accompanied by Makana’s dry humour and pragmatic approach to human nature, he opens a window onto the life of the outsider, the man of another race, one who can never go home but must make a living and a life from where he stands.” Similarly, an Austcrime Web site reviewer noted: “Bilal works his way steadily through a plot which, whilst complicated, never bogs down. He does that whilst continuing to draw a picture of a place and a culture which is searingly honest and instructive.” The same reviewer further termed the work “clever, intelligent and extremely thought-provoking.”
The Ghost Runner
In The Ghost Runner, ghosts from Makana’s own past come back to haunt him as he is hired in a case of matrimonial infidelity. Paid very well by a wealthy woman to tail her lawyer husband, Ragab, whom she suspects of cheating, Makana is soon contacted by that very husband to investigate the death of a young woman. This woman, Karima Ragab, is the victim of a burning and may also be related to the lawyer. The burning death brings back the terrible memories of the deaths of Makana’s own daughter and wife. He puts his own feelings on hold and delves into the case, which may be an honor killing involving the girl’s father, a recently returned political refugee who had sought asylum in Denmark.
“This third Makana mystery is a literary gem,” noted Booklist reviewer Christine Tran, who further commented: “Bilal handles grotesque crimes delicately, favoring characterization and culture over blood and gore.” A Publishers Weekly contributor also had praise, terming The Ghost Runner “well-crafted,” while a Kirkus Reviews critic felt it “transcends genre, satisfying fans of both mystery and literary fiction.”
The Burning Gates
The Burning Gates, the fourth series installment, is set in Cairo in 2004, not long after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The mystery involves, in part, the art world, art dealers, and art theft. Aram Kasabian, a wealthy art deal who is always on the lookout for artwork that disappeared during World War II, hires Makana to find an Iraqi colonel who is on America’s most-wanted list. This colonel has connections to some recently recovered masterworks that went missing with the Nazis, and the man is now supposedly in Cairo. Makana’s investigations soon turn up murders—including that of his employer, Kasabian—and double dealing as he struggles to get to the bottom of things.
A Publishers Weekly reviewer termed The Burning Gates a “riveting” novel with a “twisty plot … [and] Pyrrhic conclusion.” A Kirkus Reviews critic observed that this case “again uses a mystery MacGuffin to comment eloquently on recent history and daily life in a region unfamiliar to most Western readers.” Still higher praise was offered by Booklist contributor Tran, who called the novel a “winning addition to this must-read series for fans of international crime fiction.”
City of Jackals
The author’s 2016 series addition, City of Jackals, sees Makana on the hunt for Mourad Hafiz, a missing university student from South Sudan. Soon Makana turns up two deaths of South Sudanese refugees that might be connected to Hafiz, who may have also been connected to a radical group. Makana is personally drawn into this case involving those of his same ethnicity.
“This fifth case for Makana … again deftly wraps a whodunit around an eloquent, character-driven look at recent history,” according to a Kirkus Reviews critic. A Publishers Weekly reviewer similarly noted that “Bilal may not raise shivers … but he provides plenty of atmosphere.” Likewise, Booklist contributor Tran dubbed City of Jackals a “new best for this absorbing series,” as well as a “must-read, street-level look at African politics; a compelling personal journey; and a top-rate mystery.”
Dark Water
(open new3)Bilal published Dark Water, the sixth novel in the “Makana Mystery” series, in 2017. In Cairo Makana is approached by British intelligence agent Marcus Winslow to help Iraqi scientist Ayman Nizari escape from Istanbul. While Nizari may have committed war crimes, the British government is willing to help him if he reveals the location of a high-profile jihadist. Nizari may also have information about Makana’s daughter, who may still be alive.
A contributor to Publishers Weekly noted that while some of the novel’s “sequences strain the boundaries of believability, the … meticulously descriptive prose make this a page-turner.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor observed that Bilal “again plants a seed of suspense as an entree into a nuanced look at an unfamiliar culture.” Booklist contributor Christine Tran opined that Dark Water “is a tense, yet contemplative, installment in this bar-raising series.” Tran additionally pointed out that the novel gives “fans long-awaited answers to lingering questions.”
“Drake & Crane” series
Bilal started the “Drake & Crane” series in 2019 with the publication of The Divinities. Volatile, veteran detective Calil Drake finds a pair of bodies partially covered by rocks at the upscale Magnolia Quays development project, one of which is the wife of the developer, Howard Thwaite. Forensic psychologist Dr. Rayhana Crane joins Drake in the investigation, with her relative inexperience in forensic investigations causing some friction between the two. They suspect that Thwaite’s wife, a gallery owner, may have been having an affair with the other man, a French-Japanese artist, and that the rocks on them was a form of stoning punishment. A Kirkus Reviews contributor insisted that “Bilal’s sure-footed storytelling and nuanced sense of character augur well for this new series.”
The Heights is the sequel to The Divinities. While Londoners are panicking over the discovery of a severed head in the Underground, Drake links it to a case involving the disappearance of one of his informants, Zelda. Drake feels guilty that his relationship with Zelda lead to this dismemberment. Crane, meanwhile, takes the lead on the case of a missing Kuwaiti student as was reported by an obnoxious television celebrity. A Kirkus Reviews contributor remarked that “Bilal’s stylishly written second Crane and Drake mystery offers complex portraits of the detective duo.”(close new3)
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, December 1, 2013, Christine Tran, review of The Ghost Runner, p. 25; November 1, 2014, Christine Tran, review of The Burning Gates, p. 25; June 1, 2017, Christine Tran, review of Dark Water, p. 58.
Economist, January 28, 2012, review of The Golden Scales.
Geographical, July 7, 2018, Jules Stewart, review of A Line in the River: Khartoum, City of Memory, p. 56.
Guardian (London, England), September 20, 2003, Maya Jaggi, “Traveling with Djinns”; February 18, 2006, Paul Farley, review of The Drift Latitudes; February 17, 2012, Laura Wilson, review of The Golden Scales.
Independent (London, England), February 15, 2012, Jane Jakeman, review of The Golden Scales.
Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2013, review of The Ghost Runner; December 15, 2014, review of The Burning Gates; April 1, 2016, review of City of Jackals; May 1, 2017, review of Dark Water; March 15, 2018, review of A Line in the River; February 15, 2020, reviews of The Divinities and The Heights.
Library Journal, January 1, 2012, David Clendinning, review of The Golden Scales, p. 76.
New Internationalist, May 1, 1997, “In the Hour of Signs,” p. 32; October 1, 2001, review of The Carrier, p. 18; March 1, 2018, Peter Whittaker, review of A Line in the River, p. 40.
Publishers Weekly, December 2, 2013, review of The Ghost Runner, p. 63; December 22, 2014, review of The Burning Gates, p. 57; April 25, 2016, review of City of Jackals, p. 70; May 8, 2017, review of Dark Water, p. 38; March 12, 2018, review of A Line in the River, p. 51.
World Literature Today, December 22, 1995, James Gibbs, review of Wings of Dust, p. 209.
ONLINE
Al Jazeera Online, http://america.aljazeera.com/ (May 23, 2014), Kate Webb, “Jamal Mahjoub.”
Austcrime, http://www.austcrimefiction.org/ (February 20, 2013), review of Dogstar Rising.
Balham Literary Festival website, https://balhamliteraryfestival.co.uk/ (March 18, 2020), author profile.
BookGeeks, http://www.bookgeeks.com/ (December 2, 2012), Mike Stafford, author interview.
Bookreporter.com, http://www.bookreporter.com/ (February 9, 2012), Joe Hartlaub, review of The Golden Scales.
Crimepieces, https://crimepieces.com/ (April 23, 2014), review of The Ghost Runner; (April 17, 2015), review of The Burning Gates.
Crime Watch, http://kiwicrime.blogspot.de/ (June 5, 2015), author interview.
Euro Crime, http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/ (March 2012), Lynn Harvey, review of The Golden Scales; (May 25, 2013), Lynn Harvey, review of Dogstar Rising; (March 4, 2015), Lynn Harvey, review of The Burning Gates; (June 20, 2016), Lynn Harvey, review of City of Jackals.
Guardian Online (London, England), https://www.theguardian.com/ (March 17, 2013), John Crace, “Jamal Mahjoub: ‘My Wife Says Parker Bilal Is Much Nicer.’”
Independent Online (London, England), http://www.independent.co.uk/ (May 1, 2013), Jane Jakeman, review of Dogstar Rising; (March 5, 2014), Jane Jakeman, review of The Ghost Runner.
Jamal Mahjoub website, http://www.jamalmahjoub.com (March 18, 2020).
National (Abu Dhabi), http://www.thenational.ae/ (February 23, 2014), author profile.
Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences website, http://www.nias.knaw.nl/ (February 1, 2017), author profile.
Parker Bilal website, http://www.jamalmahjoub.com (March 18, 2020).
Review Room, http://www.fridaynirvana.com/ (January 31, 2012), review of The Golden Scales.
Writers and Artists, https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/ (March 18, 2020), Celeste Ward-Best, author interview.
Parker Bilal
A pseudonym used by Jamal Mahjoub
Parker Bilal is the pseudonym of Jamal Mahjoub. Mahjoub has published seven critically acclaimed literary novels, which have been widely translated. Born in London, he has lived at various times in the UK, Sudan, Cairo and Denmark. He currently lives in Barcelona.
Genres: Mystery
New Books
December 2019
(hardback)
The Heights
(Drake & Crane, book 2)April 2020
(paperback)
The Divinities
(Drake & Crane, book 1)
Series
Makana Mystery
1. The Golden Scales (2012)
2. Dogstar Rising (2013)
3. The Ghost Runner (2014)
4. The Burning Gates (2015)
5. City of Jackals (2016)
6. Dark Water (2017)
aka Drowning Light
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Drake & Crane
1. The Divinities (2019)
2. The Heights (2019)
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Collections
Short Sentence (2013) (with Conor Fitzgerald, Thomas Mogford, James Runcie and Anne Zouroudi)
Jamal Mahjoub
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Jamal Mahjoub (born London 1966) is a mixed-race writer of British and Sudanese parents. He writes in English and has published seven novels under his own name. In 2012, Mahjoub began writing a series of crime fiction novels under the pseudonym Parker Bilal.[1]
Contents
1 Published work
2 Critical reception and awards
3 Parker Bilal
4 Bibliography
4.1 As Jamal Mahjoub
4.2 As Parker Bilal
5 References
6 External links
Published work
Writing in The Observer, Zoë Heller described Mahjoub's first novel, Navigation of a Rainmaker (1989), as providing "a rich picture, both of Africa's vast, seemingly insuperable problems – and of the moral dilemmas faced by a well-meaning, ineffectual stranger".[2] Wings of Dust (1994), Mahjoub’s second novel, explores the legacy of the first generation of Northern Sudanese who were educated in the West in the 1950s and inherited the task of creating the newly independent nation. In the Hour of Signs (1996) recounts the story of the Mahdi, who led a revolt in 19th-century Turko-Egyptian Sudan, expelling the Khedive Ismail’s troops. According to the TLS, the novel conveys "A profound awareness that man refuses to learn from history, because he is blind to the guises in which it repeats itself."[3] In the process General Gordon was killed, which led to the British Reconquest and the formation of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in 1898.
"Mahjoub's first three novels can be loosely read as a trilogy of political events in Sudan. Emulating the turmoil and uncertaintly of the sudan, his writing distinguishes itself by its dynamism"[4]
The Carrier (1998) is split between the early 17th century and present-day Denmark, where an archaeological find reveals a link to a visitor from the Arab world in medieval times. The novel's astronomical theme touches on the discovery of Heliocentricity and the work of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. Travelling with Djinns (2003) tells the story of Yasin, a man with a similar background to the author, who absconds with his young son Leo and travels through Europe in a Peugeot 504.[5] In The Drift Latitudes (2006), Rachel, following the death of her son, becomes aware of the existence of a half-sister, Jade; the product of a relationship her father had late in life. The novel depicts life around a jazz club in Liverpool frequented by African sailors in the 1960s.[6] Nubian Indigo (2006) addresses the author's Nubian heritage on his father's side. The novel uses a mixture of fable and multiple characters to describe events around the evacuation of Nubian villages as a consequence of the raising of the Aswan High Dam. The novel was first published in French in 2006.[7][8]
Critical reception and awards
Mahjoub’s work has been broadly acclaimed and translated. In 1993, "The Cartographer’s Angel" won a one-off short story prize organised by The Guardian newspaper in conjunction with the publisher Heinemann Books, judged by Adewale Maja-Pearce, Margaret Busby and Ian Mayes.[9]In the 2000s his work received much attention in Europe. In 2001 in Italy Mahjoub was a finalist for the La cultura del mare[10] prize started by Alberto Moravia. In 2004 in France The Carrier (French:Le Télescope de Rachid) won the Prix de L’Astrolabe, an award given annually at the Etonnants Voyageurs festival in St Malo. In 2005, "The Obituary Tango" was shortlisted for the Caine Prize. In 2006 a short story, "Carrer Princessa", won the NH Hotels Mario Vargas Llosa prize for short stories.[11]
Parker Bilal
In 2012 Mahjoub began publishing crime fiction under the pseudonym "Parker Bilal". The Golden Scales (2012) is the first of a projected series set in Cairo featuring the exiled Sudanese detective Makana. The second book in the series, Dogstar Rising, appeared in February 2013. The third book in the series is The Ghost Runner, published in 2014.
Bibliography
As Jamal Mahjoub
Navigation of a Rainmaker (1989)
Wings of Dust (1994)
In the Hour of Signs (1996)
The Carrier (1998)
Travelling With Djinns (2003)
The Drift Latitudes (2006)
Nubian Indigo (2006)
A Line in the River: Khartoum, City of Memory (2018)
As Parker Bilal
The Golden Scales (Bloomsbury 2012)
Dogstar Rising (Bloomsbury 2013)
The Ghost Runner (Bloomsbury 2014)
The Burning Gates (Bloomsbury 2015)
City of Jackals (Bloomsbury 2016)
Dark Water (Bloomsbury 2017)
A LINE IN THE RIVER is the result of ten years writing and research. It documents the author’s return to the country where he grew up, exploring past and present in the light of Sudan’s dreams of independence, and ending with the 2011 break up of what was the largest country in Africa.
Jamal Mahjoub has been writing for longer than he cares to remember. His novels cover subjects as diverse as Sudan’s history and strife, heliocentricity, and explorations of identity. He has won the Prix de l’astrolabe in France, the NH Mario Vargas LLosa award in Spain, and the Guardian African Short Story prize.
Parker Bilal was born in London and raised in Khartoum, since then he has lived in a number of places, including South Wales, Sheffield, London, Cairo, Aarhus, Barcelona and Amsterdam. He speaks a number of languages including English and has published fiction and non-fiction.
To find out about his other writing you can go to the site of his alterego
Parker Bilal is the author of six novels in the acclaimed Makana series. These novels cover the decade leading up to the 2011 Arab Spring.
Makana, an ex-police detective exiled from his native Sudan for political reasons makes a living in Cairo hiring his services out as a private investigator.
He lives on an awama, or houseboat, on the Nile. Each novel is a stand alone. The series features events that occurred in each of the years featured with reoccurring characters.
The series so far comprises six novels. You can find more details on this site.
Parker Bilal has taken a break from Makana to write a new series that is based in London. These books feature two new characters: Ray Crane and Cal Drake.
The Divinities is the first in the series, to be followed in the autumn of 2019 by The Heights. Parker is hard at work on the third book in what will be an opening trilogy.
nterview with Parker Bilal
by Celeste Ward-Best
Parker Bilal is the pen-name of Jamal Mahjoub. Born in London and brought up in Khartoum, Sudan, Mahjoub originally trained as a geologist and has written six critically acclaimed literary novels which have been shortlisted and awarded a number of prizes. His works include: In the Hour of Signs, Travelling with Djinns, The Carrier, and The Drift Latitudes.
To celebrate the Short Sentence crime writing competition, we talk to Parker Bilal, author of a major new detective series set in modern-day Cairo. The first in the series, The Golden Scales, reviewed by The Economist as "an absorbing, complex, lively novel...”, was released in February 2012.
What is the best writing advice you’ve ever been given?
I can never think of one single thing. Writing is a constant process of learning. You never stop. And the best way of learning is to read, as widely as possible. The old adage about 10% inspiration and 90% hard work certainly applies. Writing is really about re-writing, again and again.
You trained first as a geologist. What made you decide to write?
I always wanted to write, from quite a young age, but there was really not much hope of making a living that way so I had to think of something else to do in my spare time. I had a romantic notion of the life of a geologist, travelling around the desert, pondering the mysteries of nature. I turned out to be the worst geologist ever, and instead wrote a novel about someone doing what I had originally imagined myself doing. Fiction triumphs over fact!How does your writing process for a crime novel, like The Golden Scales, differ from your previous works?Crime novels are driven by plot. They have to tick along like clockwork. This is not to say that plot has no place in literary fiction, but my previous novels wander about, seeking their own inner logic. A crime novel is more like a bullet.
Why did you decide to use a pen-name?
I intend to continue publishing other kinds of novels and this is just a way of keeping the two things separate in my head. I tend to have a lot of projects in my mind at the same time. Plus, I’ve always liked the idea of reinventing myself as someone new.
Tell us how you landed your first publishing deal.
The great levelling power of literature lies in the fact that anyone with a piece of paper and a pencil can write. I’ve always had faith in the idea that if you have a story to tell and the determination to tell it, you will get through. In retrospect, I was pretty naïve about how the whole system worked. I didn’t even have an agent. I sent the manuscript round, one publisher after another, until eventually someone decided to take a chance.
Each month a short story by one of Bloomsbury’s crime authors will be featured on the Short Sentence site thus setting a theme and laying down the creative gauntlet. Read Parker Bilal's featured story here.
Parker Bilal is the pseudonym of Jamal Mahjoub, the critically acclaimed literary novelist. He is the author of the Makana Investigations series, the third of which, The Ghost Runner, was longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. The Divinities, the first in his Crane and Drake London crime series, was published by The Indigo Press in May 2019. Born in London, Mahjoub has lived at various times in the UK, Sudan, Cairo, Barcelona and Denmark. He currently lives in Amsterdam.
Parker Bilal is the pseudonym of award-winning literary novelist Jamal Mahjoub. Parker’s Makana Investigations series has drawn critical acclaim, with The Ghost Runner being longlisted for the 2015 Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award. Talks are underway with Paramount Television for an adaptation of the Makana series set in Cairo in the years leading up to the Arab Spring. Dark Water was shortlisted for the 2018 Shamus Award for Best Private Eye Novel.
Dark Water
Parker Bilal. Bloomsbury, $27 (304p) ISBN 9781-63286-652-3
Set in 2006, Bilal's tense sixth mystery featuring the Sudanese refugee turned PI Makana (after 2016's City of Jackals) demonstrates the author's ability to immerse the reader in the richness, vibrancy, and dynamism of its various locales, starting with Cairo, where Makana is approached by Marcus Winslow, a British intelligence agent. Winslow persuades the private eye to agree to participate in a perilous mission to help an Iraqi scientist, Ayman Nizari, who may have committed atrocious war crimes, flee a dangerous situation in Istanbul. In return for sanctuary, Nizari has promised to give them not only the location of an almost mythical jihadist named Abu Hilal, but also evidence that Makana's daughter--who he thought died along with his wife in a car accident nearly 17 years earlier--is alive. Although some sequences strain the boundaries of believability, the relentless pacing and meticulously descriptive prose make this a page-turner. Agent: Euan Thorneycroft, A.M. Heath (U.K.). (July)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
"Dark Water." Publishers Weekly, vol. 264, no. 19, 8 May 2017, p. 38+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A491949066/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=6c56b3e1. Accessed 6 Mar. 2020.
Bilal, Parker DARK WATER Bloomsbury (Adult Fiction) $27.00 7, 13 ISBN: 978-1-63286-652-3
An Egyptian detective is lured into protecting a maverick scientist in hiding from terrorists. But who's the real target?An unnamed orphan girl who undergoes intense physical training is offered a promising future. Meanwhile, Cairo private investigator Makana gets an unusual offer from the queen's government, represented by veddy British Marcus Winslow. Chemical weapons expert Ayman Nizari is in hiding in Istanbul from terrorist leader Abu Halil, who wants to force him to make deadly weapons. Makana is asked to shepherd Nizari to safety. The clincher: Winslow reports that Nizari has information about Makana's daughter, thought to be dead but very much alive. (Could she be that girl from the prologue?) It disturbs Makana further that he can find no record of a Marcus Winslow. Yet despite the risk, Makana feels that he has no choice. Every new person Makana encounters in Istanbul seems slightly suspicious: the bellboy at his hotel, the Dutch businessman who tries to strike up a casual conversation, even his local guide. Winslow keeps in close contact by phone. Because he doesn't speak Turkish, Makana's progress is incremental and slow. On the third day of his assignment, he has a brief encounter with Nizari, who flees before any meaningful conversation can transpire. But the closer Makana gets to Nizari and possible answers, the more menacing forces seem to confront him. Has he fallen into a trap? Bilal's sixth (City of Jackals, 2016, etc.) again plants a seed of suspense as an entree into a nuanced look at an unfamiliar culture.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
"Bilal, Parker: DARK WATER." Kirkus Reviews, 1 May 2017. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A491002743/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=3a87b538. Accessed 6 Mar. 2020.
Dark Water. By Parker Bilai. July 2017.304p. Bloomsbury, $27 (97816328665231; e-book, $7.99 (9781632866547).
After fleeing Somalia, former police inspector Makana has reestablished himself as a respected private investigator in Cairo. Makana typically handles missing-persons cases, so it's strange when Marcus Winslow, a British intelligence agent, approaches him for help with extracting a fugitive weapons chemist from Istanbul. Referencing mutual friends in Khartoum, the chemist will only leave with Makana. Still, Makana refuses the case until Winslow reveals that the chemist claims to have proof that Makana's daughter, thought to have died while escaping Khartoum, is alive. In Istanbul, Makana is stalked by Mossad, competing factions of British intelligence, and Turkish agents as he attempts to make contact with his skittish target. Luckily, Makana isn't as far from his wheelhouse as he feared, and he's able to rely on his uncanny ability to read people to solve the murder and forge new underworld connections. The sixth Makana tale is a tense, yet contemplative, installment in this bar-raising series, and it offers fans long-awaited answers to lingering questions, along with the expertly conjured setting and characters they've come to expect. --Christine Tran
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Tran, Christine. "Dark Water." Booklist, vol. 113, no. 19-20, June 2017, p. 58. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A498582720/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b348579f. Accessed 6 Mar. 2020.
A Line in the River by Jamal Mahjoub (Bloomsbury, ISBN 9781408885468)
Novelist Jamal Mahjoub's parents fled Sudan in 1989, following the coup that brought Omar al-Bashir to power. Living in exile, first in Egypt and then in England, Mahjoub's father vowed never to return while the hardline Islamist regime retained power and indeed he did not, dying and being buried in London. For the younger Mahjoub, Khartoum, the city in which he spent his childhood, retained an enduring fascination, informing his writing and finally drawing him back to excavate his memories and attempt to understand Sudan's troubled history and uncertain future.
Following independence from Britain in 1956, Sudan followed a depressingly familiar pattern of civil war, coup and crisis, including the famine in Darfur province that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and drove millions into Khartoum shanty towns. Oil reserves drove conflicts with up to 80 per cent of revenues going on military spending.
Mahjoub focuses on the six years, beginning in 2008, of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, designed to bring to an end the disastrous civil war and which culminated, following a referendum, in the secession of South Sudan. In his attempts to rediscover the city of his memory and explore its fissile present, he paints a rich portrait of Khartoum's citizens, from the dispossessed poor to the oil-rich elite. Ultimately, though, A Line in the River is much more than a travelogue as the author explores Sudan's history, religion and culture in what is a subtle exploration of a sense of place and the meaning of belonging.
****
bloomsbury.com
Reviews editor: Vanessa Baird email: vanessab@newint.org
STAR RATING
***** EXCELLENT **** VERY GOOD *** GOOD ** FAIR * POOR
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 New Internationalist
http://www.newint.org
Source Citation
Source Citation
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Whittaker, Peter. "A Line in the River." New Internationalist, no. 510, Mar. 2018, p. 40. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A528328318/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e0eaa2bd. Accessed 6 Mar. 2020.
A Line in the River: Khartoum, City of Memory
Jamal Mahjoub. Bloomsbury, $30 (416p)
ISBN 978-1-4088-8546-8
An Sudanese exile returns in search of his country's unifying identity in this sprawling memoir. Novelist Mahjoub's family fled the Sudanese capital of Khartoum in 1989 when Omar al-Bashir's Islamist regime took power; Mahjoub was 23 when he left and returned regularly from 2008 through 2012, as the country deteriorated. He finds the city in an oil-fueled economic boom, swollen with migrants, foreigners, and new construction, but steeped in anomie and seething under authoritarian rule. Mahjoub's vivid, novelistic reportage takes in paralyzed beggars panhandling beside luxury cars, Kafkaesque bureaucracies, an editor cringing as an affable censor redlines his newspaper, a friend recalling an episode of torture, and the ubiquitous glare of TV sets airing American shows and Bollywood spectacles within the dilapidated Muslim city "like aquariums blinking with brightly colored, exotic species." He contrasts these scenes with boyhood memories of a more convivial, cosmopolitan time (boat outings and watching movies at now-shuttered cinemas), weaving in a colorful but disjointed survey of Sudan's history from 19th-century battles between Muslims and British imperialists to the convoluted contemporary tribal and sectarian wars in southern Sudan and Darfur. Mahjoub's case for a Sudanese national identity that transcends ethno-cultural animosities is unconvincing; and while there's a Naipaulian incisiveness to his portrait of Khartoum, the town feels too malaises-tricken and soulless to hold much interest. (May)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"A Line in the River: Khartoum, City of Memory." Publishers Weekly, vol. 265, no. 11, 12 Mar. 2018, p. 51+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A531285136/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0d17cbff. Accessed 6 Mar. 2020.
Mahjoub, Jamal A LINE IN THE RIVER Bloomsbury (Adult Nonfiction) $30.00 5, 15 ISBN: 978-1-4088-8546-8
A native son returns to Khartoum, a tumultuous city in a rapidly changing region.
Mahjoub (Nubian Indigo, 2006, etc.), the author of a detective series under the pen name Parker Bilal, fled Sudan with his family in 1989, when a military coup installed an Islamist regime. Twenty years later, having lost contact with many of his friends and family members, he returned to his homeland with pointed questions: "Who was I without this place that I had written about for so long?" Though now something of an outsider, he delivers a book of impressions and experiences that, though a touch overlong, stands up well next to books of similar spirit by Eric Newby and Jan Morris. A highlight comes when Mahjoub returns to his boyhood home, which might have commanded a small fortune in the Sudan of a boom that quickly ended with the splitting off of South Sudan in 2011: "In the wake of secession," he writes, "the capital is sinking once more into lethargy," and if the house is now but rubble, it evokes Proustian memories of hours sprawled on couches and chairs absorbing book after book in a household that valued writing and learning. Though his impressions are sometimes glancing, Mahjoub writes powerfully of personal history and the history of the larger city and nation alike. As he notes, he is wary of the category "exile," although indeed his parents were forced to leave Khartoum on pain of death and were never quite at home in Cairo, where the family ended up. Still, he writes affectingly, when he lived in Khartoum, he knew where he was and had some sense of meaning and being, whereas "from the moment I left, it seems to me, I have been explaining myself, one way or another."
A beguiling, thoughtful book about a place that few people know well but that seems eminently inviting in the author's hands.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
"Mahjoub, Jamal: A LINE IN THE RIVER." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2018. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A530650704/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f8560d9f. Accessed 6 Mar. 2020.
A LINE IN THE RIVER by Jamal Mahjoub
* Bloomsbury
* [pounds sterling]25 (hardback)
The history of Sudan encompasses more than 2,000 years, from the ancient Kingdom of Kush to the turbulent present. What was once a vast sub-Saharan region of uncertain extent became an independent country in 1956, with the withdrawal of British and Egyptian colonial rulers.
Sudan is the third largest country in Africa after Algeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is nearly one million square miles in area, spanning 18 degrees of latitude and comprising two per cent of the world's land mass. Even so, little is known about the country that started life with a promising future, but quickly descended into civil war and ethnic conflict, a state of affairs that still casts an indelible shadow. At best, a pre-sanitised British school curriculum would have sung the praises of Field Marshal Herbert Kitcheners victory at Khartoum in 1898, to avenge the murder of General Charles Gordon by the Mahdi's Islamic forces.
The British-Sudanese author Jamal Mahjoub has until now explored the political events of Sudan in a series of widely-acclaimed novels. Returning to Khartoum after an absence of many years, Mahjoub turns to non-fiction to tell this story in a time frame coinciding with the six years of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 that ended the civil war, and the secession of 2011 that resulted in the creation of South Sudan. The most recent conflict was, in reality, a continuation of the first civil war which ravaged the country between 1955 and 1972.
Part travelogue, part memoir, Mahjoub s narrative is above all a testimony of impressions that draws parallels between Sudan and the problems in the world today: racial tensions in the US, the rise of the far right in Europe, the persecution of minorities in numerous countries. For the author, Sudan's case offers a micro-study of the perils of failing to meet the challenges of harmonious coexistence. Leaving aside the wider implications, the book is a highly readable and authoritative celebration of a little-understood country and its capital city.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Circle Publishing Ltd.
http://www.geographical.co.uk/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
Stewart, Jules. "A LINE IN THE RIVER." Geographical, vol. 90, no. 7, July 2018, p. 56. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A547533176/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f712f691. Accessed 6 Mar. 2020.
Bilal, Parker THE DIVINITIES Indigo/Trafalgar (Adult Fiction) $15.95 4, 1 ISBN: 978-1-9996833-7-5
A new investigative odd couple probes a strange killing at a construction site in London's Battersea neighborhood.
Veteran detective Calil Drake would never have expected to be called to a scene as unlikely as the upscale development Magnolia Quays. But it's there that a pair of bodies have been found at the bottom of a pit, partially covered with rocks. One of them appears to be that of Marsha Thwaite, a gallery owner whose husband is the developer. Howard Thwaite takes the news stoically, curious mainly about the manner of his wife's death. Dr. Rayhana Crane is a forensic psychologist assigned to the case. Drake's reputed volatility and the reserved Crane's inexperience as a forensic investigator make their partnership proceed uneasily. The second victim is identified as Tei Hideo, a middle-aged French widower born in Japan. His daughter, Yuko, confirms that he was an artist. The motive and mechanics of the killing remain unclear. Adultery is one theory; after all, stoning is the punishment for adulterers in some cultures. Drake's sidekick, Kelly, also uncovers evidence of kickbacks on the construction project involving creepy Mr. Cricket. As pieces of the puzzle come together with the aid of CCTV, witness testimony, and forensic analysis, Bilal rounds out the characters of his two leads with chapters about their histories. Drake's compulsion to investigate the torching of a mosque in the neighborhood where he grew up brings him unexpectedly closer to an understanding of Crane's past and her personality. While Drake fills in the backgrounds of the two victims, Crane clarifies the timeline and details of the murder, leading to success for the sleuths and the author of the popular Makana Mysteries series (Dark Water, 2017, etc.).
Bilal's sure-footed storytelling and nuanced sense of character augur well for this new series.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
"Bilal, Parker: THE DIVINITIES." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Feb. 2020. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A613751036/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b51e7bb3. Accessed 6 Mar. 2020.
Bilal, Parker THE HEIGHTS Severn House (Adult Fiction) $28.99 4, 7 ISBN: 978-0-7278-9028-3
The new investigative partnership of two former Met detectives is strained by some personally painful cases.
The discovery of a severed head aboard the London Underground sets the city abuzz. Calil Drake, a former inspector with the Metropolitan Police and now a private detective, immediately connects the event with the disappearance of Zelda, an informant who'd been helping him build a case against crime boss Goran Malevich. A torso washed up on the beach in Brighton four years ago, and Drake's instinct tells him that the recently discovered head belongs to that torso and is Zelda's. As he presses former police colleagues to investigate, guilt and remorse about Zelda thrust him into bitter memories and compel him to probe feverishly on his own. Meanwhile, Drake and his partner, Dr. Rayhana Crane (The Divinities, 2019), clash over whether to investigate the disappearance of young Kuwaiti student Howeida Almanara. The chief sticking point is the obnoxious personality of the potential client, fulsome television celebrity Marco Foulkes. Drake finds him unctuous and suspicious; what's his relationship to the young Howeida? Crane, who knew Foulkes as a child, can't disagree but is intrigued by the case and pursues it. Crane also feels compelled to look into some financial irregularities involving Edmund Crane, the elderly father with whom she's always had a difficult relationship. She's amazed to learn that this path leads back to Foulkes. While Crane's probe follows white-collar crime among the upper crust, Drake delves the lower depths and the most cutthroat criminals. Might the two possibly be connected as well?
Bilal's stylishly written second Crane and Drake mystery offers complex portraits of the detective duo.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
"Bilal, Parker: THE HEIGHTS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Feb. 2020. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A613751012/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=baff94fe. Accessed 6 Mar. 2020.
Bilal, Parker THE HEIGHTS Severn House (Adult Fiction) $28.99 4, 7 ISBN: 978-0-7278-9028-3
The new investigative partnership of two former Met detectives is strained by some personally painful cases.
The discovery of a severed head aboard the London Underground sets the city abuzz. Calil Drake, a former inspector with the Metropolitan Police and now a private detective, immediately connects the event with the disappearance of Zelda, an informant who'd been helping him build a case against crime boss Goran Malevich. A torso washed up on the beach in Brighton four years ago, and Drake's instinct tells him that the recently discovered head belongs to that torso and is Zelda's. As he presses former police colleagues to investigate, guilt and remorse about Zelda thrust him into bitter memories and compel him to probe feverishly on his own. Meanwhile, Drake and his partner, Dr. Rayhana Crane (The Divinities, 2019), clash over whether to investigate the disappearance of young Kuwaiti student Howeida Almanara. The chief sticking point is the obnoxious personality of the potential client, fulsome television celebrity Marco Foulkes. Drake finds him unctuous and suspicious; what's his relationship to the young Howeida? Crane, who knew Foulkes as a child, can't disagree but is intrigued by the case and pursues it. Crane also feels compelled to look into some financial irregularities involving Edmund Crane, the elderly father with whom she's always had a difficult relationship. She's amazed to learn that this path leads back to Foulkes. While Crane's probe follows white-collar crime among the upper crust, Drake delves the lower depths and the most cutthroat criminals. Might the two possibly be connected as well?
Bilal's stylishly written second Crane and Drake mystery offers complex portraits of the detective duo.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
"Bilal, Parker: THE HEIGHTS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Feb. 2020. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A613751012/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=baff94fe. Accessed 6 Mar. 2020.
Bilal, Parker THE DIVINITIES Indigo/Trafalgar (Adult Fiction) $15.95 4, 1 ISBN: 978-1-9996833-7-5
A new investigative odd couple probes a strange killing at a construction site in London's Battersea neighborhood.
Veteran detective Calil Drake would never have expected to be called to a scene as unlikely as the upscale development Magnolia Quays. But it's there that a pair of bodies have been found at the bottom of a pit, partially covered with rocks. One of them appears to be that of Marsha Thwaite, a gallery owner whose husband is the developer. Howard Thwaite takes the news stoically, curious mainly about the manner of his wife's death. Dr. Rayhana Crane is a forensic psychologist assigned to the case. Drake's reputed volatility and the reserved Crane's inexperience as a forensic investigator make their partnership proceed uneasily. The second victim is identified as Tei Hideo, a middle-aged French widower born in Japan. His daughter, Yuko, confirms that he was an artist. The motive and mechanics of the killing remain unclear. Adultery is one theory; after all, stoning is the punishment for adulterers in some cultures. Drake's sidekick, Kelly, also uncovers evidence of kickbacks on the construction project involving creepy Mr. Cricket. As pieces of the puzzle come together with the aid of CCTV, witness testimony, and forensic analysis, Bilal rounds out the characters of his two leads with chapters about their histories. Drake's compulsion to investigate the torching of a mosque in the neighborhood where he grew up brings him unexpectedly closer to an understanding of Crane's past and her personality. While Drake fills in the backgrounds of the two victims, Crane clarifies the timeline and details of the murder, leading to success for the sleuths and the author of the popular Makana Mysteries series (Dark Water, 2017, etc.).
Bilal's sure-footed storytelling and nuanced sense of character augur well for this new series.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
"Bilal, Parker: THE DIVINITIES." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Feb. 2020. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A613751036/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b51e7bb3. Accessed 6 Mar. 2020.