Sweetness in the Belly

Lilly is born to nomadic parents, but when they are unexpectedly killed, she winds up in an unusual situation: being raised as a white Muslim by a Sufi sheikh. She lives much of her childhood and teen years in Africa, but eventually ends up in London, England, working as a nurse. Lilly is forced to navigate a collision of cultures and beliefs while figuring out who she truly is and where she truly belongs. Alternating between England in the 1980s and Ethiopia in the 1970s, Sweetness in the Belly is both a touching love story and a gripping chronicle of political upheaval.

Sweetness in the Belly won the 2006 Trillium Book Award and was a finalist for the 2005 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Read an excerpt | Author interviews

From the book

Author interviews

The Next Chapter5:10Camilla Gibb answers the Proust Questionnaire

The novelist and author of the memoir "This Is Happy" shares her favourite authors, her greatest fear, and more.