Sweetness In The Belly

Sep 13, 2025 7:56 AM

Author:Camilla Gibb

A richly imagined tale of one woman's search for love and belonging.

In Thatcher's London, Lilly, a white Muslim nurse, struggles in a state of invisible exile. As Ethiopian refugees gradually fill the flats of the housing estate where she lives, Lilly tentatively begins to share with them her longing for the home she herself once had in Africa and her heartbreaking search for her missing lover.

Back in Haile Selassie's Ethiopia, the young Lilly, born in the 1950s to British parents, now orphaned and full of religious conviction, finds herself living in the city of Harar. She is drawn to the idealistic young doctor, Aziz, himself an outsider in the community. But then convulsions of a new revolutionary order separate them, sending Lilly to an England she has never seen, while Aziz disappears.

Reviews

This is a profound novel, exploring themes of female circumcision, politics, war, tribalism, yet it is also an exquisite homage to Islam

—— Bernardine Evaristo , Guardian

Camilla Gibb....burrows deep into the lives of her characters, finding the universal in the exotic

—— Kate Saunders , The Times

A passionate and humane story about people for whom displacement, poverty and war are everyday trials...Gibb, singled out as one of the Orange Futures writers, is one to watch

—— Sheila Hamilton , Glasgow Evening Times

Gibb's understanding of this world seems almost uncanny but it is her compassion for her characters that impressed me the most. [Sweetness in the Belly] challenges and disturbs as it enlightens and uplifts. A really exceptional achievement

—— Barbara Gowdy

Sweetness In The Belly is remarkable for its geographic, thematic and historic amplitude and breadth, depicting the multi-cultural and modern world. Gibb...is certainly one to watch.

—— Birmingham Post

A veritable feast... incredibly enjoyable... a marvellous romp

—— Geographical Magazine

A hilarious spoof and perfect parody of Britishness...it shames what now claims to be comedy

—— The Times

Sociologically and psychologically as observant as ever

—— SPECTATOR

Book of the Month: An intuitive and sympathetically observed piece of writing

—— GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

Trollope writes with customary compassion and humanity in this heartwarming and engaging novel

—— DAILY EXPRESS

A very superior work of women's fiction... an exceedingly skilled analysis of the relationship between different generations of women and how the power shifts as the old, as they must, get old and the young move on... it is a story told beautifully

—— SUNDAY EXPRESS

The legendary Ms Trollope triumphs yet again, with her latest slick of classy chick-lit

—— HEAT

This thoroughly engaging, intelligent, literate novel

—— WASHINGTON POST

The brilliantly observed portrayal of family life is wonderfully compelling - and a story many will be able to identify with. ****

—— CLOSER

Incisive, smart and at times darkly funny

—— Gillian McAllister

Astonishingly powerful

—— Nicola Moriarty

Brilliantly observed

—— Kathryn Hughes

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