A review by zainub_reads
North of Dawn by Nuruddin Farah
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.”