Tayeb Salih

Tayeb Salih (1929–2009) is renowned as one of the 20th-century’s greatest authors, particularly for his novel Season of Migration to the North, translated into English by his friend Denys Johnson-Davies, which was declared ‘the most important Arabic novel of the 20th century’ by the Arab Literary Academy in 2001. It remains a pivotal point in post-colonial narrative and has been translated into more than 20 languages. It has never been out of print in English, in a number of different editions. Tayeb Salih was born in Karmakol, near al-Dabbah in northern Sudan. His other works include The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid, The Wedding of Zein, A Handful of Dates and Bandarshah, all translated by Denys Johnson-Davies. For 10 years, he also wrote a weekly column for the London-based Al-Majalla magazine.