Take a photo of a barcode or cover
serendipitysbooks 's review for:
North of Dawn
by Nuruddin Farah
The premise of this sounded so promising. A Somali couple have lived in Norway for decades, assimilating and raising their children. However their son is radicalised, travels to Somalia and kills himself in a suicide bomb attack. Somewhat reluctantly they bring his wife and her children to Norway. Her children hunger for the freedom Norway offers, while she becomes more religious. Obviously plenty of meaty issues - immigration, family, religion and more - as well as the chance to learn about two different societies. All things which I enjoy.
And yet this novel fell flat for me. Much of it is relayed in conversations between different characters. Their voices never felt unique, genuine or distinctive. A teenager newly arrived from Somalia is unlikely to speak exactly like his grandmother who has lived there for years and yet I struggled to tell them apart. The novel read very much like academic discourse which had been turned into fictional conversation. This made it hard for me to get caught up in the story and invested in the characters. I was initially listening on audio and the narrator was not capturing my attention so I switched to an ebook but that helped only a little.
I feel more distinct and genuine voices for different characters, less of an abstract academic tone for many of them, perhaps a sprinkling of Somali and/or Norwegian words and phrases would have made all the difference. The author has won the Neustadt International Prize for Literature so is obviously highly regarded. Sadly this book just didn’t work for me.
And yet this novel fell flat for me. Much of it is relayed in conversations between different characters. Their voices never felt unique, genuine or distinctive. A teenager newly arrived from Somalia is unlikely to speak exactly like his grandmother who has lived there for years and yet I struggled to tell them apart. The novel read very much like academic discourse which had been turned into fictional conversation. This made it hard for me to get caught up in the story and invested in the characters. I was initially listening on audio and the narrator was not capturing my attention so I switched to an ebook but that helped only a little.
I feel more distinct and genuine voices for different characters, less of an abstract academic tone for many of them, perhaps a sprinkling of Somali and/or Norwegian words and phrases would have made all the difference. The author has won the Neustadt International Prize for Literature so is obviously highly regarded. Sadly this book just didn’t work for me.