Only In London

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by Hanan al-Shaykh

Bantam Doubleday Dell

Due/Published October 2002, 288 pages, paper

ISBN 0385721218

New in paper (F02)

Four strangers meet on a turbulent flight from Dubai to London: Amira, a canny Moroccan prostitute; Lamis, a 30-year old Iraqi divorcee; Nicholas, an English expert on Islamic art; and Samir, a Lebanese man who is delivering a monkey on a mission he doesn't fully understand. Once safely on British soil, Lamis and Nicholas fall in love, Samir chases after blond British youths, and Amira reinvents herself as a princess, the better to lure clients at the best London hotels. Through the city and across cultural borders, Only in London portrays the smells, sounds, and sights of London's lively Arab neighorhoods, as well as the freedoms the city both offers and withholds from its immigrants.