futurepres13's review
3.0
So I struggle writing this, because in the end I actually liked this book. But, the characters totally lacked any depth and the dialogue so was consistently stilted and unconvincing. The story was actually pretty flat too, but I liked the book still.
elienore's review
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Xenophobia, Violence, and Physical abuse
Minor: Hate crime, Alcohol, Suicide, and Rape
annamontana's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Mugdi and Gacalo are Somalis living in Oslo. They have lived there for years. Now their son's widow and children are moving to Oslo. How will they assimilate? Will they take on their stepfather's extremist views?
This is a slow but moving story of cultures, extremists (both Jihadi and skin head), and family. The characters are well written. Tensions rise and fall through out the book but never leave totally. I want to read more by the author, who is a well known Somali author.
This is a slow but moving story of cultures, extremists (both Jihadi and skin head), and family. The characters are well written. Tensions rise and fall through out the book but never leave totally. I want to read more by the author, who is a well known Somali author.
foxgallagher's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
black_girl_reading's review
4.0
This lovely book was my first written by a Somalian and also my first situated in Norway, and so I spent a fair bit of the book trying to place the abruptness of the language, which was also unfamiliar to me. About a Norwegian-Somali family that is forever changed by the addition of the wife of their late jihadist son, and his two step children to their numbers, I came to appreciate the directness of the writing, particularly as the topic itself was so complex and multilayered. The book explored grief and violence and fundamentalism and the resiliency and adaptability of the human spirit, and the immense lovability of precious, precocious, changing children. This book was dedicated to Farah’s own younger sister who was killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul, and I felt the enormity of his loss, and appreciated so much that he was still able to explore the nuances that shape the path of folks towards extremism, or away from it, without making any broad generalizations about individual character or creating easy answers about why this happens. This book was unresolved in so many ways, and that was okay. In the end, I read a family shrinking and growing and ebbing and flowing and adjusting and progressing and regressing and being. I read intertwined lives. I read a lovely consideration of an important topic in a measured and thoughtful prose.
marite's review
2.0
Hvis dette er Somalias beste romanforfatter, har Somalia problemer på litteraturfronten - også.
Farah har lagt handlingen til Oslo, et sted han åpenbart aldri har vært. Forfatteren sløser ikke med stedskoloritt, og godt er det, for mye av det som blir nevnt, er det vanskelig å kjenne seg igjen i.
Elever er ikke på etternavn med lærerne sine, man får ikke 7 års fengsel for urettmessig å ha anklaget noen for voldtekt, nesten alle bruker elektrisitet for å lage mat, ikke gass osv. osv. Det verste er dialogen. Nå vet ikke jeg mye om hvordan somaliere snakker sammen, men jeg har vondt for å tro at det er på denne stive, forelesende måten. Selve historien er ganske interessant, men romanens "skurk" IS-enken, blir aldri noe annet enn en pappfigur.
Farah har lagt handlingen til Oslo, et sted han åpenbart aldri har vært. Forfatteren sløser ikke med stedskoloritt, og godt er det, for mye av det som blir nevnt, er det vanskelig å kjenne seg igjen i.
Elever er ikke på etternavn med lærerne sine, man får ikke 7 års fengsel for urettmessig å ha anklaget noen for voldtekt, nesten alle bruker elektrisitet for å lage mat, ikke gass osv. osv. Det verste er dialogen. Nå vet ikke jeg mye om hvordan somaliere snakker sammen, men jeg har vondt for å tro at det er på denne stive, forelesende måten. Selve historien er ganske interessant, men romanens "skurk" IS-enken, blir aldri noe annet enn en pappfigur.
zainub_reads's review against another edition
4.0
Gacalo and Mugdi are Somalis living in Oslo as loyal citizens of Norway however, despite their good intentions they are unable to stop their son, Dhaqaneh from getting swept up in radical propaganda that leads to him ending his life as a suicide bomber in Somalia.
Before his suicide Dhaqaneh asks Gacalo for a promise -that she would take care of his wife and step-children if something were to happen to him and in order to keep her word, Gacalo arranges for his son’s widow, Waliya and the two children to come and settle in Oslo.
This is the story of the events that follow their arrival and the repercussions Gacalo and Mugdi face as a result of the promise.
The complex intersection of myriad themes like immigration, fundamentalism, radicalization, acclimatization, acceptance and intolerance among many others was a very gripping subject to read of.
The dilemma Mugdi faces in choosing his identity as a person being connected to many places but not really being rooted to anyone place in particular was heartbreaking and his witnessing his host country’s growing intolerance while his birth-country is on an unexplainable downward spiral -felt like a portrait of our times.
Though it has a very strong premise the execution of the narrative left a bit more to be desired.
For instance, there wasn’t any insight into the inner workings of any character nor were their motives fully explored.
Also, the very formal voice felt out of place at times and despite the audiobook’s narrator having done a wonderful job I felt like the writing did not reflect the time period well enough and the dialogue was in-cohesive and abrupt probably, due to the translation being unable to fully capture the essence of the language it was written in.
Waliya is mostly referred to as “the widow” instead of by name not sure if it’s a culture thing but that really felt odd.
There are a lot of little tangents throughout the story that were interesting and added to making the story a memorable one.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“There are moments in one's life when everything one considers to be a win is for all practical purposes a loss.”
Before his suicide Dhaqaneh asks Gacalo for a promise -that she would take care of his wife and step-children if something were to happen to him and in order to keep her word, Gacalo arranges for his son’s widow, Waliya and the two children to come and settle in Oslo.
This is the story of the events that follow their arrival and the repercussions Gacalo and Mugdi face as a result of the promise.
The complex intersection of myriad themes like immigration, fundamentalism, radicalization, acclimatization, acceptance and intolerance among many others was a very gripping subject to read of.
The dilemma Mugdi faces in choosing his identity as a person being connected to many places but not really being rooted to anyone place in particular was heartbreaking and his witnessing his host country’s growing intolerance while his birth-country is on an unexplainable downward spiral -felt like a portrait of our times.
Though it has a very strong premise the execution of the narrative left a bit more to be desired.
For instance, there wasn’t any insight into the inner workings of any character nor were their motives fully explored.
Also, the very formal voice felt out of place at times and despite the audiobook’s narrator having done a wonderful job I felt like the writing did not reflect the time period well enough and the dialogue was in-cohesive and abrupt probably, due to the translation being unable to fully capture the essence of the language it was written in.
Waliya is mostly referred to as “the widow” instead of by name not sure if it’s a culture thing but that really felt odd.
There are a lot of little tangents throughout the story that were interesting and added to making the story a memorable one.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“There are moments in one's life when everything one considers to be a win is for all practical purposes a loss.”
jessieadamczyk's review against another edition
2.0
One of dozens of others I've read that confuse important subject matters with good story telling.
The style is clunky, with paragraph after paragraph listing events. The dialogue has all the feeling of a pile of sawdust. Very little about the story makes sense or works.
The style is clunky, with paragraph after paragraph listing events. The dialogue has all the feeling of a pile of sawdust. Very little about the story makes sense or works.
sumunun's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0