Nuruddin Farah

A couple's tranquil life abroad is irrevocably transformed by the arrival of their son's widow and children, in the latest from Somalia's most celebrated novelist. For decades, Gacalo and Mugdi have lived in Oslo, where they've led a peaceful, largely assimilated life and raised two children. Their beloved son, Dhaqaneh, however, is driven by feelings of alienation to jihadism in Somalia, where he kills himself in a suicide attack. The couple reluctantly offers a haven to his family. But on arrival in Oslo, their daughter-in-law cloaks herself even more deeply in religion, while her children hunger for the freedoms of their new homeland, a rift that will have lifealtering consequences for the entire family. Set against the backdrop of real events, North of Dawn is a provocative, devastating story of love, loyalty, and national identity that asks whether it is ever possible to escape a legacy of violence—and if so, at what cost.

A Novel

North of Dawn

A Somali youth is torn between duty to family and country. On the one hand Askar, an orphan, should look after his foster mother, on the other he wants to be a man and emulate his father who died fighting the Ethiopians. By an English-speaking Somali writer, author of Secrets.

Maps

Returning to Mogadishu, Somalia, from New York after a twenty-year exile, Jeebleh finds a troubled and devastated city ruled by clan warlords and patrolled by violent gangs of thugs, as he works to settle his late mother's outstanding accounts and aids an old friend whose youngest child has been abducted. Reprint.

Links

Adopting her niece and nephew when her half-brother is murdered in Mogadishu, Somalia, half-Somali photographer Bella disciplines her free-spirited nature and reevaluates her options when the children's mother resurfaces.

Hiding in Plain Sight

Sweet and Sour Milk (Farah, Nuruddin, Variations on the Theme of An African Dictatorship.)

A shocking debut novel by the acclaimed African writer recounts the story of Elba and of a rural girl's life and unhappy marriage in Mogadishu, in a celebration of the human spirit and a challenge to male chauvinism. Original. 15,000 first printing.

From a Crooked Rib

رواية من الصومال

خرائط

“With Secrets, Nuruddin Farah solidifies his reputation as one of the world’s great writers.”—Ishmael Reed Set against the backdrop of the civil war in Somalia, this stunningly ambitious novel was a Los Angeles Times Book Review Best Fiction of the Year Selection. In Mogadiscio, the dictator is preparing to flee and clans are moving into the city, which rattles with machine gun fire. Society is collapsing under the weight of its own perversities. Unexpectedly, Kalaman, a businessman who owns a computer store, receives a visit from his childhood crush, who has returned from America to take him up on an old pledge—and have his child. The arrival of his house guest pulls Kalaman back into a past he thought he had escaped, rife with doubts and secrets that go deep into his heritage. In a dazzling display of storytelling genius, Nuruddin Farah weaves together myth and magic, shape shifters and tribal wisdom, frank sexuality and lyrical prose as Kalaman revisits his own coming of age story and finds the heartbreaking tale of his famliy’s lost innocence amid the ravages of authoritarianism. With Secrets, the culmination of his Blood in the Sun trilogy, Farah draws readers through the rifts that have torn across Somali society and into the culture and mindset of his troubled country. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Secrets

The second in the author's Blood in the Sun trilogy, the novel explores life in Somolia through two decades of civil strife.

Gifts

From an internationally acclaimed writer, Crossbones is a tense and moving portrait of individuals cast against overpowering social forces. An aging Jeebleh has returned to Somalia to visit old friends in his beloved Mogadiscio. He is accompanied by his son-in-law, Malik, a journalist intent on covering the region's ongoing turmoil. Instead of chaos, however, the two are greeted by an eerie calm, enforced by white-robed figures bearing whips. Soon, Malik's brother, Ahl, arrives in Puntland, the region notorious as a pirates' base. Ahl is searching for his stepson, who has vanished from the States, apparently recruited by an imam allied to Somalia's rising insurgency. As Somalis brace for an Ethiopian invasion, the brothers' efforts draw them deeper into the fabric of the country. Then the borders are breached, the country's uneasy quiet shattered, and Malik and Ahl experience firsthand the derailments of war. Timely and illuminating, Crossbones reaffirms Nuruddin Farah's stature as 'the literary voice of his country on the world stage' (Minneapolis Star Tribute).

Crossbones

Das ruhige Leben eines somalischen Paares in Oslo wird durch die Ankunft der Witwe ihres Sohnes und deren Kinder unwiderruflich verändert. Ein wichtiger Roman über Familie, Politik und Gewalt von einem der bedeutendsten zeitgenössischen Schriftsteller Afrikas. Seit Jahrzehnten leben Gacalo und Mugdi in Oslo, wo sie ein ruhiges und weitgehend assimiliertes Leben geführt und ihre zwei Kinder großgezogen haben. Doch nachdem ihr geliebter Sohn Dhaqaneh sich den Dschihadisten in Somalia angeschlossen hat und bei einem Selbstmordattentat ums Leben gekommen ist, gerät ihre Welt aus den Fugen. Schweren Herzens bieten sie seiner somalischen Familie an, nach Oslo zu kommen. Als sich aber ihre Schwiegertochter immer mehr in die Religion vertieft, während ihre Kinder sich nach den Freiheiten ihrer neuen Heimat sehnen, gibt es einen Bruch in der Familie, der ihrer aller Leben unwiderruflich verändern wird. Vor dem Hintergrund realer Ereignisse erzählt Nuruddin Farah eine provokative und umwerfende Geschichte von Liebe, Loyalität und nationaler Identität, die uns die Frage stellt, ob es je möglich ist, einem Erbe der Gewalt zu entkommen – und wenn ja, zu welchem Preis.

Im Norden der Dämmerung

From the internationally acclaimed author of North of Dawn, Links is a novel that will stand as a classic of modern world literature. Jeebleh is returning to Mogadiscio, Somalia, for the first time in twenty years. But this is not a nostalgia trip—his last residence there was a jail cell. And who could feel nostalgic for a city like this? U.S. troops have come and gone, and the decimated city is ruled by clan warlords and patrolled by qaat-chewing gangs who shoot civilians to relieve their adolescent boredom. Diverted in his pilgrimage to visit his mother’s grave, Jeebleh is asked to investigate the abduction of the young daughter of one of his closest friend’s family. But he learns quickly that any act in this city, particularly an act of justice, is much more complicated than he might have imagined.

Africa's culture and ideology are illuminated in a novel set against the background of Somalia's civil war

Gifts is a beguiling tale of a Somali family, its strong matriarch, Duniya, and its past wounds that refuse to heal. As the story unfolds, Somalia is ravaged by war, drought, disease, and famine, prompting industrialized nations to offer monetary aid -- "gifts" to the so-called Third World. Farah weaves these threads together into a tapestry of dreams, memories, family lore, folktales, and journalistic accounts.

A bold new novel that “augments a body of work worthy of a Nobel Prize” (Kirkus Reviews), from the internationally acclaimed author of North of Dawn Nuruddin Farah—“the most important African novelist to emerge in the past twenty-five years” (The New York Review of Books)—returns with a provocative, unforgettable tale about family, freedom, and loyalty. A departure in theme and setting, Hiding in Plain Sight is a profound exploration of the tensions between liberty and obligation, the ways in which gender and sexual orientation define us, and the unintended consequences of the secrets we keep. When Bella, a fashion photographer living in Rome, learns of her beloved half-brother’s murder, she travels to Nairobi to care for her niece and nephew. But when their mother resurfaces, reasserting her maternal rights and bringing with her a gale of chaos and confusion that mirrors the deepening political instability in the region, Bella must decide how far she will go to obey the call of sisterly responsibility.

The second novel in Nuruddin Farah's Blood in the Sun trilogy, Gifts is the beguiling tale of a Somali family and the struggles of its powerful matriarch to keep it whole. Duniya is a single mother, raising twins while working as a nurse in a Mogadiscio hospital. Her self-sufficient world is rocked when her rebellious daughter brings home a mysterious foundling infant. And when Duniya accepts a ride to work from a wealthy, romantically interested family friend, her whole life is turned upside down. Meanwhile, the hospital where she works is besieged by a desperate population ravaged by war, drought, disease, and famine. Western relief agencies have invaded Somalia with their charity, and some Somalis chafe at tainted goods and the burden of debts they can never hope to repay. With lyrical, luxuriant prose, Farah weaves a spellbinding tapestry of reportage, dreams, memory, folktales, and family lore. In his hands, Duniya's tale becomes emblematic of the struggles of an entire people. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

The author, a Somali, recounts the stories of Somali refugees and others whose lives were uprooted or terribly transformed by the anarchy in Somalia during the early 1990s.

Voices from the Somali Diaspora

Yesterday, Tomorrow

From the internationally acclaimed author of North of Dawn comes "a beautiful, hopeful novel about one woman's return to war-ravaged Mogadishu" (Time) Called "one of the most sophisticated voices in modern fiction" (The New York Review of Books), Nuruddin Farah is widely recognized as a literary genius. He proves it yet again with Knots, the story of a woman who returns to her roots and discovers much more than herself. Born in Somalia but raised in North America, Cambara flees a failed marriage by traveling to Mogadishu. And there, amid the devastation and brutality, she finds that her most unlikely ambitions begin to seem possible. Conjuring the unforgettable extremes of a fractured Muslim culture and the wayward Somali state through the eyes of a strong, compelling heroine, Knots is another Farah masterwork.

Knots

Fired from her job as editor of a national newspaper because of government disapproval of her editorial policies, Medina tries to give her daughter, Ubax, a sense of dignity and self-worth

Nuruddin Farah

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