In 2008, Sulaiman Addonia wrote his first novel, Consequences of Love, which was published by Chatto & Windus. The book received high acclaim and has been translated into twenty-two languages so far. Here, he talks to Huriy Ghirmai about exile, taking risks and the solitary life of an author.
Ever since I discovered Sulaiman Addonia and subsequently read his book, I had been on the hunt for the author in the hope of catching an interview with him. Eventually, with the help of my most trusted aide, the ever dependable Google, I managed to get hold of his contact details and dropped him an email. His response was prompt and unpretentious. Throughout our successive email correspondence and a few telephone conversations, it was striking how Sulaiman had remained unaffected by all the hype surrounding his first novel.
At long last, following a couple of cancelled appointments and further email exchanges, our meeting was set to take place. At the rendezvous point around Russell Square in London, I instantly spot him as he approaches the station peering through his hood opening in a freezing November morning. After we shake hands and exchange the world famous Eritrean pleasantries, we head off to the Starbucks near the commanding Hotel Russell for the long awaited conversation.
As we sit over Earl Grey tea and café latté, I think to myself that it was perhaps very fitting our meeting happened in Russell Square, not very far from Bloomsbury, an area famously associated with the Bloomsbury Set, a literary group which counted great writers such as Virginia Wolfe and E.M. Forrester as its members.
“In fact, I went to UCL which is almost in the heart of Bloomsbury,” Sulaiman tells me. “I studied Economics there and went on to do my MSc in Development Studies at SOAS. I eventually ended up working at the Centre for Development Policy and Research (CDPR) based at SOAS for three years.”
At the age of 15, Sulaiman arrived in the UK from Jeddah accompanied by his brother, who was 17 at the time. Arriving in a strange country so young was tough for the young brothers. London was completely different and coming from Saudi Arabia, the contrast could not have been any greater.
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