Links - Softcover

Farah, Nuruddin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0795701535 ISBN 13: 9780795701535

Publisher: Kwela Books, 2003

Synopsis

Gripping, provocative, and revelatory, Links is a novel that will stand as a classic of modern world literature. Jeebleh is returning to Mogadiscio, Somalia, for the first time in twenty years. But this is not a nostalgia trip--his last residence there was a jail cell. And who could feel nostalgic for a city like this? U.S. troops have come and gone, and the decimated city is ruled by clan warlords and patrolled by qaat-chewing gangs who shoot civilians to relieve their adolescent boredom. Diverted in his pilgrimage to visit his mother's grave, Jeebleh is asked to investigate the abduction of the young daughter of one of his closest friend's family. But he learns quickly that any act in this city, particularly an act of justice, is much more complicated than he might have imagined.

About this title

Review:

"Farah takes his well-deserved place beside Chinua Achebe and V. S. Naipaul. . . . He writes of the country lost to him with passion and pain, in a voice that is lyrical and incisively intelligent."

Nuruddin Farah, the most important African novelist to emerge in the past twenty-five years. ("The New York Review of Books") It's easy to see why Nuruddin Farah's name keeps coming up as a likely recipient of a Nobel Prize in Literature. ("Newsweek")

"Nuruddin Farah, the most important African novelist to emerge in the past twenty-five years." --The New York Review of Books

"It's easy to see why Nuruddin Farah's name keeps coming up as a likely recipient of a Nobel Prize in Literature." --Newsweek

Synopsis:

At the end of this novel, Raasta, the enigmatic child who is at its centre, says of her Uncle Bile that he 'asks a lot of questions'. One could say this of the text itself. This is a title of questions. Jeebleh's return to Mogadiscio, capital of Somalia, is a journey of discovery or rediscovery. Jeebleh, the main character, presents the purpose of his trip (from the United States where he lives with his American wife and daughters) as a search for his mother's grave. But once he finds his bearings (more or less) in Mogadiscio, this purpose is almost displaced by a more immediate one: the search for Raasta, a little girl who has a remarkable soothing effect wherever she goes. Between the poles of a dead mother and a child that inspires hope and oozes charm - the dead but still potent past and the absent but vital future - Jeebleh in fact searches for himself and his place in the world.

About this edition

• Publisher: Kwela Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0795701535
• ISBN 13: 9780795701535
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 1