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BOOK REVIEW: A death in the family

Friday February 17 2017
book

Nuruddin Farah is the author of Hiding In Plain Sight. PHOTOS | FILE

From the devastation wrought by Islamic extremism comes the story of a family shaken by a tragic loss.

Hiding in Plain Sight by Nuruddin Farah centres around Bella, a Somali woman living in Italy. The liberal-minded Bella has a successful career, travels the world and has lovers in different countries.

But the beloved of her life is her older half-brother, Aar, whom she has idolised since childhood.

Bella’s life changes drastically when Aar dies during a terrorist attack while working for the United Nations in Mogadishu. He leaves behind two children in Kenya, and right away Bella travels to Nairobi to take up her role as aunt and protector of her niece and nephew.

Valerie, Aar’s ex-wife, comes to see her children ostensibly to comfort them, but ultimately intending to reclaim them.

Although the book begins on a violent note, the story is really about love, loss and family connections.

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Bella’s grief is tangible, but I did wonder how such a carefree woman would so easily fall into the restricting responsibilities of parenthood.

There is something disjointed about the emotional journey of the children. Salif is more affected by the turn of events than his younger sister, Dahaba. Yet both children seem to move on quite rapidly from the devastating loss of a loving father to the sudden return of an absentee mother.

The early chapters that describe the violence and terror are really gripping, but the rest of the family drama never quite reaches the same level of excitement even though there is plenty of opportunity.

A lot of time is spent describing mundane activities such meal preparation.

Nevertheless, Farah candidly discusses the topic of same-sex relationships, which are taboo in this region, and gives us an insider understanding of the lives of displaced people.

In contrast to radical Islam, this is an ordinary Muslim family that is lax in their practice of their faith.

We see the tension faced by modern women still bound by family and social norms, and listen to issues around female circumcision discussed casually around a dinner table.

Born and raised in Italian-occupied Somaliland, Farah emigrated in the early 1960s due to political conflict, and now lives in the US and South Africa. Yet much of Farah’s writing is influenced by his homeland. The demise of Aar recalls the death of his own sister, who was killed in Afghanistan where she worked for the United Nations.

Farah, 72, has won multiple book awards over the years, including the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. He has also been nominated several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

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