Somalia flag Books from Somalia

Recommended books (12)
Travel the world without leaving your chair. The target of the Read Around The World Challenge is to read at least one book written by an author from each and every country in the world. All books that are listed here as part of the "Read Around Africa Challenge" were written by authors from Somalia. Find a great book for the next part of your reading journey around the world from this book list. The following popular books have been recommended so far.

1.

A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout, Sara Corbett EN

Rating: 5     3 Votes
Country: Africa / Somalia flag Somalia
Description:
The spectacularly dramatic memoir of a woman whose curiosity about the world led her from rural Canada to imperiled and dangerous countries on every continent, and then into fifteen months of harrowing captivity in Somalia—a story of courage, resilience, and extraordinary grace. The dramatic and redemptive memoir of a woman whose curiosity led her to the world’s most beautiful and remote places, its most imperiled and perilous countries, and then into fifteen months of harrowing captivity—an exquisitely written story of courage, resilience, and grace As a child, Amanda Lindhout escaped a viole... continue
Genre
Recommended: 25 May 2022

2.

A Woman of Firsts by Edna Adan Ismail EN

0 Ratings
Country: Africa / Somalia flag Somalia
Description:
'The Muslim Mother Teresa' Huffington Post Imprisonment. Mutilation. Persecution. Edna Adan Ismail endured it all - for the women of Africa.
Recommended: 26 Dec 2022

3.

Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed EN

Rating: 3     8 Votes
Country: Africa / Somalia flag Somalia
Description:
Jama is a half-feral child scavenging in the streets of a great seaport. After his mother dies, Jama decides to search for his never-seen father. So begins Jama's extraordinary journey of more than a thousand miles north all the way to Egypt.
Recommended: 26 Dec 2022

4.

Desert Dawn by Waris Dirie, Jeanne D EN

Rating: 3.7     3 Votes
Country: Africa / Somalia flag Somalia
Description:
Fashion model, UN ambassador and courageous spirit, Waris Dirie is a remarkable woman, born into a traditional family of tribal desert nomads in Somalia. She told her story - enduring, at five years old, the ancient and savage custom of female circumcision; running away at twelve on foot through the desert in order to escape an arranged marriage; being discovered by Terence Donovan as she worked as a cleaner in London; and becoming a top fashion model - in her book, the worldwide bestseller, Desert Flower. Although Waris Dirie fled her homeland, she never forgot the country and culture that mo... continue
Genre
Recommended: 03 Oct 2022

5.

Desert Flower : The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad by Waris Dirie, Cathleen Miller EN

Rating: 4     1 Vote
Country: Africa / Somalia flag Somalia
Description:
Waris Dirie ran away from her oppressive life in the African desert when she was barely in her teens, illiterate and impoverished, with nothing to her name but a tattered shawl. She traveled alone across the dangerous Somali desert to Mogadishu—the first leg of a remarkable journey that would take her to London, where she worked as a house servant; then to nearly every corner of the globe as an internationally renowned fashion model; and ultimately to New York City, where she became a human rights ambassador for the U.N. Desert Flower is her extraordinary story.
Recommended: 02 Jan 2023

6.

From a crooked rib by Nuruddin Farah EN

Rating: 2.5     2 Votes
Country: Africa / Somalia flag Somalia
Description:
Written with complete conviction from a woman's point of view, Nuruddin Farah's spare, shocking first novel savagely attacks the traditional values of his people yet is also a haunting celebration of the unbroken human spirit. Ebla, an orphan of eighteen, runs away from her nomadic encampment in rural Somalia when she discovers that her grandfather has promised her in marriage to an older man. But even after her escape to Mogadishu, she finds herself as powerless and dependent on men as she was out in the bush. As she is propelled through servitude, marriage, poverty, and violence, Ebla has to... continue
Genre
Recommended: 02 Jan 2018

7.

Hiding in Plain Sight by Nuruddin Farah EN

Rating: 3.5     2 Votes
Country: Africa / Somalia flag Somalia
Description:
When Bella, an internationally known fashion photographer, dazzling and aloof, is forced to return to Nairobi to care for her teenage niece and nephew, she feels an unfamiliar surge of protectiveness and responsibility. But when their mother unexpectedly 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 whether she can – or must – come to their rescue.
Genre
Recommended: 27 Aug 2022

8.

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali EN

Rating: 4.5     105 Votes
Country: Africa / Somalia flag Somalia
Description:
The author of The Caged Virgin recounts the story of her life, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia and escape from a forced marriage to her efforts to promote women's rights while surviving numerous threats to her safety. 75,000 first printing.
Genre
Recommended: 25 May 2022

9.

The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed EN

Rating: 4     7 Votes
Country: Africa / Somalia flag Somalia
Description:
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021 SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA NOVEL AWARD 2021 SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALES BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2022 'Chilling and utterly compelling, The Fortune Men shines an essential light on a much-neglected period of our national life' Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empireland Mahmood Mattan is a fixture in Cardiff's Tiger Bay, 1952, which bustles with Somali and West Indian sailors, Maltese businessmen and Jewish families. He is a father, chancer, some-time petty thief. He is many things, in fact, but he is not a murderer. So when a shopkeeper is brutally killed and all e... continue
Recommended: 20 Apr 2022

10.

The Orchard of Lost Souls by Nadifa Mohamed EN

Rating: 4     1 Vote
Country: Africa / Somalia flag Somalia
Description:
From the author of The Fortune Men, longlisted for The Booker Prize 2021... 'From Somaliland's bitter past blooms a moving and mature novel of conflict and survival' Independent It is 1988 and Hargeisa waits. Whispers of revolution travel on the dry winds but still the dictatorship remains secure. Soon, and through the eyes of three women, we will see Somalia fall. Nine-year-old Deqohas left the vast refugee camp she was born in, lured to the city by the promise of her first pair of shoes. Kawsar, a solitary widow, is trapped in her little house with its garden clawed from the desert, confined... continue
Recommended: 20 Apr 2022


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