I wouldn’t normally have paid much attention to this book list, billed as “reading list to while away waning winter” but the choice of a favorite Amin Malouf book, Leo Africanus, changed my mind. It’s an imaginary, lyrical biography of a real, historical figure, Hassan Al-Wazzan, a 16th-century Moorish ambassador. Al-Wazzan was caught by Sicilian pirates on his way back from a pilgrimage to Mecca and was given as a gift to Pope Leo X. He became the renowned geographer Leo de Medici, or Leo Africanus, and was witness to a number of historical events.
Who is Laila Lalami
Laila Lalami is the award winning and best selling author of six books.
What books has Laila Lalami written?
Laila has written the novels, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, Secret Son, The Moor's Account, The Other Americans, and The Dream Hotel.
What awards has Laila Lalami won?
Laila Lalami has won the American Book Award, the Arab American Book Award, the Hurston-Write Legacy Award, a Guggenheim a Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship, and a British Council Fellowship. Her work has also been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Booker Prize, the Women's Prize, and the Edgar Allan Poe Award.