Translations is a powerful, character-driven debut novel by Jumaana Abdu. It follows young mother Aliyah and her daughter, Sakina, who leave Sydney for a property in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales in the wake of a personal tragedy. Set almost entirely on this rural property, the novel is a microcosm of Aliyah’s life with her daughter, reflecting the ups and downs of their experiences with the people Aliyah allows into their lives.
Although they are building a new community for themselves, Aliyah, fiercely independent and reluctant to depend on others, often retreats. Among their new acquaintances are Shep, an imām and now farmhand; Billie, a Kamilaroi woman and colleague at the hospital; and Hana, a beloved childhood friend with a complicated history. Much of the novel explores these relationships and the entwinement of these characters with Aliyah, dissecting how the parallel but conflicting worldviews of the people around her contribute to how Aliyah finds her footing in a new life and self. Abdu’s writing is tender and deliberate, conveying the most through what is left unsaid and the emotions experienced in each moment.
The novel explores grief, religion, dispossession, Palestinian–First Nations solidarity, and the many shapes of the quiet but enduring strength required to live and continue through it all. With an intimate plot and rich in nuanced dialogue, Translations is literary fiction for fans of Etaf Rum and Yumna Kassab.
This review was first published in Books+Publishing in June 2024.
