Dazzle

In 19th-century Sudan, with the Ottoman Empire fading and Britain gaining influence in the region, a religious leader proclaims himself the Mahdi, or the redeemer. He aims to correct the wrongs — excessive taxation, for one — of the foreign rulers. But as the revolution gains strength, and the Mahdi collects followers, his greed for power tarnishes the movement’s ideological purity. Leila Aboulela’s dazzling new novel, “River Spirit,” follows the course of that revolution as it turns into a new instrument of oppression.