Issue 246

At the outset I have known the author of this Book for a quite while, he was good at solving mathematical and electronics problems but I hardly knew of his hidden treasure of illuminating stories as well as his sorceries spells. As the book was published I came across the advertisements on the Somaliland websites and I had nothing or little (if any) of interest to buy and read the stories in the book, however someone has offered me the book to read recently. I looked the pictures on the both sides of the book and tried to read the blurb on the right cover which I found it uncomfortable to read as it was written with a very poor quality format (very small white font) and my eyesight is not that sharp, I opened and read the preface written in English and it was reasonably okay.

One morning as the children went to school and I was not going to work I read the first view pages of the book and said to myself, as we always find it very difficult to expose the flaw of our women, why did he choose the girl (Khadija) for the main character and I was almost to give up reading the rest of the book as I found it very hard to contain the sentiments brought by this and at the same time I wanted to comprehend what author intended to tell the readers. As I kept reading more interesting it become and I finish reading the book less than ten hours in three days and now I am yearning for more books from this author!

This book encompasses not one or two of the required elements to meet the reader’s expectations but surely exceeds all necessary characteristics; it makes you feel angry, laughing, emotional as well as shocking. There are some enticing techniques used for the structure of the stories, they are interconnected into one another which make you more interesting of what you are reading. The author had modeled the structure of the narration prior to the writing and this shows the author’s skills of story telling. When you are reading this book you are like watching a very thrilling and fascinating comedy (surely the author had spent a great length of time on watching these types of comedies), and anyone with an ounce of sense of humor will love this book.

The author has presented herewith some of the horrendous experiences endured some of the Somalis under the dictatorship era and how the childhood trauma can have a great psychological impact and still be haunting, no matter how well you have or where you are. It also reflects the plight faced by the Somali communities in the west. There are fissures in the process of the stories and crucial pieces of information are withheld from the reader to ask him/herself some questions, such as where was the military base Khadija has been rescued and how did she came to London and how did she get away with Burhaan’s murder; and these omissions are some of the elements which makes the book very interesting. In this brief overview of the contents of the book, these are some of the main points that I felt worth of mentioning.

Some of the episodes that made me laugh are include (even now as I am writing these lines I am laughing!!) .. such as the rescue mission, when the soldier demanded help for his fowls from Khadija and gave her the carrier bag with soap and red pen!, and the delirious dreams of the Saalax’s imprisonments in Canada, red foam coming from every direction while Khadija was hanging from the ceiling! The song sang by the girl who was skinning the three dangling men alive and so many other scenes.

The shocking scenes are comprise when Weris came back to her home caught by the fire and army surrounded until all the contents of the house consumed by the fire, as Khadija had butchered Burhaan, the quandary of little innocent Siraad and Cilmi holiday maker, from the Khaliij who had unsuccessful marriage attempt several times. And the assassination of Saalax as well as Khadija’s suicidal commit.

Emotional scenes: when Haweeya gave the five pound note to her begging dad and said to him ‘you are welcome dad’ after he said thank you (adaa mudan Aaaaabe), as Khadija sat down holding her husband’s hands asking him where their daughter is.

In spite of judging the author’s success of that the book has very beautifully articulated tales, it would be fair to say some of the episodes indicate the author’s lack of experiences by tapering unwittingly many doors from the series. The characters of good series books never die, if the newborn baby in Hargeysa Hospital, Khadija and Saalax have been spared in the series the author’s fame and fortune would have been blossoming. This culmination of self inflicting errors could encumber the anticipated series of “Cirsan ka yeedh”

Audiences: in my experiences the Somali novel books have not got many audiences due to that the Somalis currently are classified into three categories; those in back home most of them do not like reading a well-heeled man’s baseless tales, they don’t even read the genuine stories let alone innovations due to lack of resources and life adversity; Immigrated adults who live in the west, most of them barely read any novels regardless of whether it is printed Somali or non-Somali language, they think it is a someone else’s game; and the offspring born or brought up in the west, those can not read or understand context of the Somali language.

My little ones had sensed that I have really liked this book and read the “note for non Somali-speaking librarians” on the first page, and said, it sounds good, can you read it loud for us please, I said you have to learn reading of your mother language to enjoy what I am enjoying, anyway it is not meant to be read by children- they have taken the book of me and said either they will be able to read one-day or someone somewhere will translate it into English!

So to get the right audiences for the book the author or may be someone else should translate it into English and contact some of the film production companies, in my believe it could be a box office hit and takeover many well known series including the Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter.

ibroawad@hotmail.com

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