[align=left]A gripping narrative ya Mustapha! Seamlessly knitted.
The dialogue is superb, making the best use of Salah's playwriting skills.
The intense dialogue, particularly in the first few chapters, comfortably launchpads the reader onto a richly-textured, breathtaking narrative.
Employment of dreams helped keep the narrative intact, coherent, and engaging, thanks also to the superb sense of humour (which came as no surprise to me!), which lent the story an air of gaiety. Salah skillfully employed sarcasm quite positively to expose deeply embedded paradoxes. Symbolic references came across quite neatly.
The last chapters did much more than just wrapping up the story and joining the dots. They eloquently capsuled centuries of discourse over questions of cultural identity and colonialism. More importantly, It ended on a positive note- a gesture badly needed in a strife-torn country like ours. A brilliant contribution ya Salah.
The language is just great. Glory be to Allah!
I have made a few comments in track changes. Very minor.
The slang expressions like wanna and gonna: are they not originally US? Were they commonly used at the time of the novel?
I would italicize local references such as ibrik, kakko, etc.
Hope these help. Look forward to see it on the shelves.
To close, I am inclined to quote the Alemita guys exclamation@ Glory be to Allah. I would add it to it my own:
لا حولاااااااااا