Hamid Ibn-Mustafa Al-Bahairi left the village of his birth at the age of ten and went to seek his fortune in Europe. Paris made him rich, and he is now a successful business man, married to an educated cosmopolitan French woman. But when he decides to visit his original family home in the eastern region of the Nile Delta, he unwittingly condemns both his wife and the village to become locked in a series of frustrating and disturbing encounters - cultural, religious and emotional - which are politely glossed over at first, until they finally become the makings of grim tragedy. Told through the voices of the principal local protagonists in this tense drama (the officials, Hamid and his brother, the fiercely jealous women, the only French-speaking villager - but never the visiting Simone), Voices gives an objective but deeply compassionate glimpse of people's lives thrown into confusion. The familiar and the strange continually press upon each other as the villagers struggle to come to terms with what was originally intended to be the joyful return of a favorite son.

Hosam Aboul-Ela provides a startlingly original perspective on Faulkner, examining his work in the transnational context of the "Global South": the geopolitical and economic dynamics of the post-Reconstruction period that link the American South to the larger colonial tradition. "Other South "thus raises new questions as to the scope and attitude of Faulkner's project, positioning Faulkner's work as an inherent critique of colonialism and emphasizing a more specific conceptualization of coloniality.
Engaging with ideas and thinkers from the former colonies, Aboul-Ela draws on an understanding of economics, social structures, and the colonial/neocolonial status of the Third World, stepping outside the preconceptions of current postcolonial studies to offer a fresh perspective on our shared literary heritage and a new look at an iconic literary figure.