CHICAGO: From award-winning author Leila Aboulela comes “Bird Summons,” a journey that follow three women into the Scottish Highlands to visit the grave of 19th century Scottish Muslim convert Lady Evelyn Cobbold. On a mission to learn about Lady Evelyn’s life and a connection to their own Muslim roots, the women learn much more about themselves than they’ve ever known before.
Salma is a massage therapist from Egypt, has four children and a British husband who converted to Islam. After being voted out of the Arabic Speaking Muslim Women’s Group, she tries to salvage a trip to Lady Evelyn’s grave to redeem herself in her own eyes and in her community’s. Along for the ride is one of her closest friends, Iman, who grew up in Syria, is beautiful beyond compare and who is on her third marriage, and Moni from Sudan, whose son with cerebral palsy has kept all of her attention for the past several years.
Each woman is so embedded in routine and living life for their families or husbands that they’ve forgotten themselves. But venturing into the Scottish Highlands will force them to examine their own lives. Fashioned around Fariduddin Attar’s “Conference of the Birds,” the women are guided by a mystical hoopoe who shares parables that blend together Scottish lore and their own Muslim identity for them to understand the path they are on and the path they should take to move forward.
Aboulela magically weaves the two identities of each woman, their Eastern roots and Western lives, forcing them to look at their own reflections and acknowledging who they are and the paths they have chosen in life. They live in contemporary times, with anti-immigration policies and bigoted opinions surrounding them, with children who are growing apart from them, or are not growing at all. They are trapped within their own confines until their ordinary lives are upended into something extraordinary.
Aboulela’s magical realism presents itself with an etherealness against the backdrop of the Scottish Highlands. Dealing with ego and shedding oneself of pride, learning how to balance and allowing the past to rest, Aboulela tells a story of moving forward, looking deeply into oneself and finding that the universe is at one’s fingertips. Sometimes, change just takes a different perspective — and strength will always follow.
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