Synopses & Reviews
With
Secrets, Nuruddin Farah solidifies his reputation as one of the worlds 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 pledgeand 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 famliys 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.
Review
The plot is rich and the language is superb, exotic and consciousness-expanding. . . . Its enough to make you homesick for a country that is not your own.”
Los Angeles TimesHis prose is so fresh and inventive, and the social relations, particularly those of a sexual nature, are so frank and explicit that once you start this novel, you may find it difficult to put down.” Alan Cheuse, NPR
In spellbinding, luminous prose, Farah unpeels layer after layer of family history. His Somalia longs to be freed of ancient antagonisms and delivered into stable nationhood built on reason.”Baltimore Sun
With Secrets, Nuruddin Farah solidifies his reputation as one of the worlds great writers.”Ishmael Reed
About the Author
Nuruddin Farah was born in 1945 in Baidoa, Somalia. He is the author of numerous novels, novellas, short stories, and plays. His novels include
Hiding in Plain Sight,
Crossbones, and his trilogies
Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship and
Blood in the Sun, which comprises
Maps and
Gifts as well as
Secrets. After the publication of
Sweet and Sour Milk in 1979, Farah became persona non grata in Somalia and served a self-imposed exile of more than twenty years, before he was permitted to visit in 1996. His novels have been translated into many languages and have won numerous international awards. Farah was named the 1998 laureate of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. He now divides his time between Cape Town, South Africa and Annandale, New York.