The latest addition to my website is Igiaba Scego‘s Oltre Babilonia (Beyond Babylon). Scego is an Italian writer of Somali origin. This novel tells the stories of four women, Zuhra, daughter of Maryam and Elias (Zuhra she has never met Elias), Maryam, Mar, daughter of Miranda, an Argentinian woman now living in Italy, and an … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Nuruddin Farah‘s Maps. This novel is somewhat different from many of his others, as it focuses on an earlier part of Somali history, the war between Ethiopia and Somalia over Ogaden. The focus is very nationalistic, in that the Somalis feel that, unlike the Ethiopians, they are a … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Nuruddin Farah‘s Close Sesame. While we are again dealing with opposition to the Somalia dictatorship, this one is slightly different from many of his others, in that the main character is not a Somali expatriate returned home. The story centres around Deeriye. He is now an elderly man, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Nuruddin Farah‘s Sardines. This is similar to many of his other novels in that we have a brave person, in this case a woman called Medina, who stands up to the brutal repression from the General/President, the tribal system and the old-fashioned and repressive Islamic law. She is … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Nuruddin Farah‘s Sweet and Sour Milk, another grim tale from Somalia. Soyaan is feeling decidedly unwell and, by the end of the chapter, is dead. Has he been poisoned and, if so, by whom? The family, not wishing to make a fuss and also because Muslims bury their … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Nuruddin Farah‘s Crossbones, the third book in his trilogy about Somalia at the beginning of this century and the the efforts of expatriate Somalis visiting the country to improve things. This one sees three visitors – Jeebleh, who visited ten years previously in the first novel in the … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Nuruddin Farah‘s Knots, the second in a trilogy of novels about expatriate Somalis visiting Somalia during the early part of this century, when the situation was really grim. This one follows Cambara, a Somali woman who is living in Canada. She married an expatriate Somali, Wardi, who married … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Nuruddin Farah‘s Links, the first book in a trilogy about the disastrous situation in Somalia, at the beginning of the 21st century. The basic story line in all three books is the arrival in Mogadishu of one or more expatriate Somalis, who had been living in Canada, coming … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Nadifa Mohamed‘s Black Mamba Boy. Mohamed is one of the Granta’s Best Young British Novelists, though she is Somali and this novel is very much a Somali novel. It tells the story of her grandfather, Jama Mohamed, and his difficult but adventurous life growing up in the 1930s … Read more