Secrets

Blood in the Sun #3

by Nuruddin Farah

It is the week before the outbreak of the civil war in Somalia. Kalaman, a successful young businessman in Mogadiscio receives an unexpected house guest—the wild and sexually adventurous Sholoongo, his childhood crush returned from America. She announces that she intends to have his baby. Confronted by this dangerous interruption from his past, Kalaman starts to investigate his family's history, and uncovers the startling key to his own conception. Hailed by Salman Rushdie as "one of the finest contemporary African novelists," Farah writes in a rhythmical, sensual prose reminiscent of García Márquez's best fiction. Evoking the beauty and tragedy of Africa, Secrets is a remarkable portrait of a family disintegrating like its country, its ties dissolved by exposed lies and secrets.

Genres: Fiction, Africa, Somalia, African Literature, Historical Fiction, Literature, Literary Fiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published May 21, 1998

About the author

Nuruddin Farah (Somali: Nuuradiin Faarax, Arabic: نور الدين فرح‎) is a prominent Somali novelist. Farah has garnered acclaim as one of the greatest contemporary writers in the world, his prose having earned him accolades including the Premio Cavour in Italy, the Kurt Tucholsky Prize in Sweden, the Lettre Ulysses Award in Berlin, and in 1998, the prestigious Neustadt International Prize for Literature. In the same year, the French edition of his novel Gifts won the St Malo Literature Festival's prize. In addition, Farah is a perennial nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Reviews

[Sawsan · Rating 3 out of 5]

الجزء الأخير من ثلاثية الكاتب الصومالي نور الدين فرح "دماء في الشمس
كل جزء له عنوان يعبر عن الفكرة الأساسية التي يدور حولها السرد
بعد الخرائط والهدايا جاءت الأسرار.. الأسرار ما بين البوح والكتمان
كالامان الشخصية الرئيسية في الرواية .. رجل يبحث عن هويته وأصوله
حياته بين أهله وعمله وعلاقاته, وذهنه المزدحم على الدوام بالذكريات والأحلام
وأسرار الماضي التي تُخفي وراءها حقيقة الأحداث والشخصيات
يعرض فرح حالة الضياع والتخبُط والفوضى لكل من بطل روايته وبلده الصومال
في أواخر نظام سياد بري وصراعات المليشيات المسلحة وبداية الحرب الأهلية
وما تبعها من قتل وانهيار وخراب بفعل العداوات والنزاعات العشائرية والقبلية
سرد مُطول ومشحون بالأساطير والحِسية والأحلام والخرافات والمعتقدات الشعبية
وفي النهاية.. الأسرار لا تظل مخفية إلى الأبد

[mai ahmd · Rating 3 out of 5]

زمن الرواية عهد سياد بري وهو يشهد في أيامه الأخيرة اشتعال حرب القبائل
تتميز هذه الرواية بالغموض والتشويق والاثارة تعج بروائح البداوة والجنس وتغور في مجاهل السحر والشعوذة , أغلب شخصيات الرواية يحملون كما هائلا من الأسرار والغرائب والمعتقدات التي ترفضها العشيرة لكنها تُمارس في السر وتحت غطاء لا تدري مالذي يحميه ويمنعه للخروج إلى العلن
تدور الرواية حول عائلة صومالية عاشت حقبتين الحقبة الأولى في حالة البداوة ومن ثم النقلة السياسية والإقتصادية التي حدثت للمجتمع الصومالي ومابين هذه الفترة يتطرق الكاتب
لإمتزاج الثقافة الوثنية بالثقافة الإسلامية في مجتمع بدائي كالصومال سيطرت عليه التمائم والدجل والشذوذ والإتيان بكل ما هو محرم تحت غطاء الحب والأخلاق
كالامان يتتبع في الرواية الأسرار التي تخفيها والدته والده وجده نونو هذه الشخصية المثيرة
والتي استحوذت على اهتمامي طوال فترة القراءة متتبعة لكل حرف يقال على لسان هذا العجوز ربما كان هذا النونو يرمز للصومال في كل تصرفاته المتناقضة
شولونغو شخصة أنثوية رضعت من ذئبة وتميل تصرفاتها إلى البهائم تقوم حياتها على إثارة الرجال منذ أن كانت طفلة وقع كالامان تحت سحرها في فترة طفولته ومارس معها مختلف أنواع المحرمات !
هناك الكثير الذي يمكن أن يقال عن الرواية ,
بلا شك أن الرواية مجنونة مع مرتبة الشرف !
أسلوب الراوي ممتع إلا أن بعض المشاهد في الرواية مقززة وخارجة عن الفطرة الإنسانية كالشذوذ إتيان المحارم مشاهد مقززة وتثير النفور ولا أدري إن كانت هذه الرواية تجسد واقعا حقيقيا أم إن خيال الكاتب شطح به كثيرا
السحر والجنس ومابينهما هوعنوان هذه الرواية

[Charlaralotte · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book very much. But the story ran on too long, and by the end I no longer cared what happened with Kalaman and Sholoongo.

The members of Kalaman's family were all well-drawn, but I found the attempt at interweaving large-scale Somali political history a bit uneven. The roadblocks as he drives in/out of Mogadishu seemed placed in an effort to build tension. The opposite happened because the impending conception didn't seem such a big deal.

The part about "the horror" of eating menstrual blood was retold unnecessarily. It wasn't such a shocker to begin with, and then became more and more tedious the more it was noted.

Did enjoy the journey into another culture, and the descriptions of village life, religion, customs, etc.

Think a good editor could have made this book dynamite.

[9 · Rating 3 out of 5]

الجزء الأخير من ثلاثية: دمّ في الشمس. بعد الجزء الأول خرائط, والثاني أسرار.
تتلاقى الأبعاد الرمزية في الرواية مع الأسئلة الوجودية بثقافة تعكس خلفية الكاتب. كانت تجربة ممتعة مع نور الدين سأحرص على إعادتها بأعمال أخرى بالطبع.

[طَيْف · Rating 2 out of 5]

"جثة واحدة وثلاثة أسرار"...هذا ما تبدأ به وتنتهي الرواية...و"أسرار" هي الرواية الثالثة ضمن ثلاثية نور الدين فارح"دماء في الشمس"...ومن لما بدأت قراءتها بعد انتهائي من "خرائط"الأولى في ثلاثيته...بدأت بالبحث عن الخيوط التي تربط بينهما...فلا شيء مشترك بينهما من حيث الزمان أو المكان أو الشخوص والأحداث...وتبدو خيوطهما مشتركة في أمور أخرى ورسائل أراد نور الدين تأطيرها بطريقة مختلفة.

لا تغادر الأحداث في كليهما أرض الصومال، وطبيعتها الإفريقية الغنية...وهويتها، وحروبها، وثقافتها وأساطيرها وتراثها الشعبي الشفاهي...وتاريخ الصومال القاسي والدكتاتوريات التي جلبت له الدمار...وما تفرزه الأحداث من عنف وكراهية ونفوس مهترئة...وصعوبات اقتصادية تلقي بظلالها على حياة الناس وأسلوب معيشتهم


"ماذا يتوقع منهم أن يفعلوا في هذه المجاعات المنتشرة في كل مكان، التي لم تجفف النخاع في عظامهم فقط، بل حرمتهم أيضا من إحساسهم بالفخر بذاتهم، ومن قدرتهم على التفكير، ومن إنسانيتهم؟؟...للمجاعات تأثير ارتدادي، رد فعل وحشي، فحيثما تسود الدكتاتوريات، تسود المجاعات أيضا"


تتفق كلا الروايتين أولا بتركيزهما على عالم الطفولة الحائر بين عالمين...من خلال طفل يحمل وعيا أكبر من عمره(كما في خرائط)...فــ"كالامان" الشاب...بعطره الغربي...وشركته الحديثة للمعلوماتية...وحياته المستقرة...وجد نفسه يبحث عن حقيقة اسمه وينبش أسرار ماضيه وطفولته...لتتكشف له عورات مجتمعه وتناقضاته ومحرماته المسكوت عنها والأسرار الخفية في جذوره...ويكتشف أنه جاء نتيجة اغتصاب جماعي لوالدته...ويقوده ذلك لتساؤلات حول هويته...وهوية المجتمع الذي يحيا فيه


ويمنح فارح شخوصه حياة ثريّة...وتركيزا على كل منها...لتظهر مكتملة...واضحة المعالم رغم غرابتها...برؤيتها ورؤية من هم حولها...
داماك...ياقوت...و"شولونغو"...حاملة الأسرار...ومشعلة الأوهام والأحلام...بكل الأساطير المنسوجة حولها...بسبب محاولة أمها وأدها ورضاعتها من ذئبة...
و"الجد نونو"...الذي يرحل ومعه ثلاثة أسرار


"كان ثمة شيء في نونو ينهار، يموت، كانت عيناه لا تزالان مفتوحتين، وقلبه في سباق ليتجاوز قلباً آخر، قلب الحياة. جثة واحدة. ثلاثة أسرار"

والتي رسمها فارح على لسان كالامان بصورة مشوقة مليئة بالغرابة...ما بين حكمة الجدود...وبقايا موروثات الماضي..."نونو" الذي درس النجوم، ومواقع الكواكب، وكان رفيقا للطيور التي تتجمع حوله وتأكل من راحة يده...والذي يملك فلسفة عميقة حول الأحداث في بلده، ركز عليها "فارح" في فاصله الذي بدأ به الجزء الثاني من الرواية صـ 229



أما الأحلام...فعالم قائم بذاته في الرواية...تختلط بالأساطير...وتخلف الكوابيس...وتترك أثرها في الواقع

وللمرأة في كلا روايتيه حضور قوي...يؤكد من خلاله نظرته لدورها في المجتمع وما تتعرض له من ظلم...بحثا عن بيئة مريحة لها ولطفلها...يتمتعا فيها بمزيد من الحريّة والراحة...وبدور أكبر في بناء مجتمع ما زال يعاني نتيجة الحروب والنكبات والمجاعات...

انتقال الصومال من مرحلة البداوة لمرحلة التمدن خلف نفوسا حائرة تبحث عن طريق...وتعدد الثقافات فيها كذلك مازج بين ثقافة وثنية وتقاليد قبلية وثقافة إسلامية...فالعادات القديمة لم تختفي...بل تم التزاوج بين ثقافتين لينتج عنها مجتمع تسكنه الخرافات والأساطير...
ويبدو التساؤل عن الهوية حاضرا في كلتاهما...فما يربط الصوماليين برأيه الحب وليس الدم


هي حكاية أسرة تخبئ الكثير من الأسرار حيث "للأسرار طاقة حياة...تراقبنا بعمق"...ورجل يبحث عن أصوله وحقيقته...والصومال يعيش حربا أهلية وإن كانت الأحداث السياسية تأخذ مرتبة ثانية كما يبدو...فالإنسان مرآة تلك الأحداث ويعكس إفرازات السياسة...والإنسان هنا هو محور روايته...والتساؤلات عن الروابط التي تربط الصوماليين ببعضهم...وأثر الانتماءات القبلية في الحرب الدائرة...ودوائر الكراهية والعنف التي تقتل الأمان...والحزن الذي حل بديلا للفرح...فنور الدين وإن كان يعيش بعيدا عن بلده...ولكنه ينجح في اقتناص التفاصيل التي تؤكد هويته...ويؤكد من جديد على الهوية الأفريقية


نور الدين فارح...ينصب لي فخا...يكاد ينسيني في لحظات تلك التفاصيل الجنسية الفجة والمقرفة التي ضمنها روايته

"فارح"يمتلك أدواته الروائية بصورة رائعة...تناوب السرد على لسان شخوصه محكم...فن الحوار متقن ومشوّق...حبكاته التي تتضمن الكثير من الأساطير والمعتقدات مدهشة

ولكن يعيب الرواية إغراقها في الجنس حد اللامعقول...اللامعقول...اللامعقول...وأحيانا كثيرة حد القرف!!!0

وما زلت أختلف معه في رؤيته لهوية الصومال...كدولة عربية إسلامية...فقد تعرفت على الكثير من الصوماليين المعتزين بانتمائهم لأمتهم الإسلامية...والذين يؤكدون توجههم نحو الإسلام كحل لمشكلات بلدهم.

[Baratang · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a great potential of being a best seller. It had a good story line and gave a glimpse of Somalia and
life in that country. Nonno was introduced as a great man, almost self made; and a family man. His son' s relationship with his wife was very strange , and he was a good character in his own right. The wife was quite something though; I struggled to figure out her bold and cold nature. The beloved grandson was to me very weak and it was hard to accept that Nonno's other genes didn't rub on him, besides the obvious lack of endowment in certain physical attributes. Shongolongo's abilities were overrated and unfounded. The author took a bit long to expose the secret, and dwelled too much on the sexual indiscretions of the characters. There was enough sex for the world no matter a person's sexual orientation or preferences. The story about the menstrual blood could have been a great punch line had it only been mentioned once, and maybe recalled again at the end. However, its repetition spoiled everything.

The secret was worth keeping by the boy's parents, and it explained a lot about his mother's behavior. It also gained both his grand dad and father a great deal of respect. It is really sad what people subject each other to, and the dehumanizing ways we use to meet our selfish goals are shocking.

I couldn't nonetheless feel the built-up to the crisis Somalia is in currently, apart from the few road blocks and the increasing number of dead bodies lying on the side of the roads which the author quickly mentioned in the short spaces he refrained from explaining sexual acts.
I must say the author has a very rich English vocabulary; I stopped bothering checking the meaning of words out of fear of not finishing the book.

[Sorin Hadârcă · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most complex and well conceived book in the trilogy, one that I may wish to re-read, perhaps in ten years. The tone is different and so is the style, akin to the magical realism of García Marques, the only way of making sense out of the tragedy of the Somalians. Then again, I wish I could dwell more into the concepts of "nuuru" and "nabsi".

[DeeNa Kharouf · Rating 4 out of 5]

الرواية تأخذ الاربع نجوم بامتياز ..

لكن هناك بعض الخلل في الترجمة .. فأنقصتها واحدة لأكون عادلة ..

قصة لمنظور أخر .. لبلد أخر .. لحياة أخرى .. وأسرار أكثر ..

كل شيء فيها سهل ومعقد .. واضح وغامض .. تستحق اسمها بجدارة ..

سأعود لقراءة المزيد من أعمال الصومالي نور الدين فارح بالتأكيد ..

[Alison Smith]

I struggled to reach two thirds of the way and then abandoned this novel by the highly acclaimed Somali writer. Sorry – I just couldn’t soldier on any longer. The book came from my TBR pile. I bought it, as one of my attempts to read world literature novels.
Amazon.com informs us : It is the week before the outbreak of the civil war in Somalia. Kalaman, a successful young businessman in Mogadiscio receives an unexpected house guest—the wild and sexually adventurous Sholoongo, his childhood crush returned from America. She announces that she intends to have his baby. Confronted by this dangerous interruption from his past, Kalaman starts to investigate his family's history, and uncovers the startling key to his own conception. Hailed by Salman Rushdie as "one of the finest contemporary African novelists," Farah writes in a rhythmical, sensual prose reminiscent of García Márquez's best fiction. Evoking the beauty and tragedy of Africa, Secrets is a remarkable portrait of a family disintegrating like its country, its ties dissolved by exposed lies and secrets
Reading amazon.com’s précis of the novel it all sounds so straightforward, but as a reading experience, it is not. The narrative constantly wanders off into Somali folktales, which I couldn’t connect with the story. Also, the characters relate their bizarre, disturbing dreams throughout the story, but perhaps I should rather describe them as nightmares. Again, these were difficult to connect with the narrative.
Another ingredient which I disliked, was the constant graphic reference to each character’s sexual history, their sexuality, including that of a very young boy. I found the childhood sexual activity shocking. And no, I haven’t been living under a rock for the past decades. I’m sure cultural conditioning both on my side as reader, and on Farah’s side as author, is responsible for my uneasiness.
Despite my reservations, I enjoyed the writing; it’s terrific, rich in colourful phrases and descriptions. I can see why Farah has been described as one of the foremost African writers. Despite this, I was dis-enjoying the book so much, I decided to abandon it.

[Bob Newman · Rating 2 out of 5]

vague verbiage voids value

It's Somalia---Mogadishu and environs---back when the country was about to descend into clan warfare and central government would disappear. The country's premier author has written this novel about a time of troubles. But you, the reader, are making your way through a thick jungle with heavily-scented flowers, buzzing insects, and the cries of hidden creatures that you hear but never see. It's all exotic and fascinating in a sweaty way, but why are you cutting such a path ? Where are you heading ? Personally, this reviewer lost his ambition to reach the end and despaired of even finding an open space where he could catch his breath and take stock of some direction. Those who love pure, lush verbiage, stacks of proverbs and unusual images will disagree with my take on SECRETS, but in my view, you must be a very determined reader to reach the end. I admired his "Sardines", written over thirty years ago and so was most willing to try this one, but I was disappointed. The writing is skillful; shifting voices, building up some tension (extremely slowly), extensive use of magical realism. 'Nuoro'--a quality which enables plants, animals and humans to divine who wishes them harm and who is benign. 'Nuoro' enables you to know when to stay and when to run. I think 'nuoro' helped me to stop reading, though the book did not harm me of course. 'Nabsi' is a quality that leads to human stability, an equilibrium of sorts. I moved in that direction by reading something else. Nuruddin Farah has talent, but I think it went overboard in this novel. That's it.

[b bb bbbb bbbbbbbb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weird, boring and annoyingly sex obsessed. I didn't realize it wasn't worth reading until a couple chapters in, so I skimmed the rest to see if I might be missing out on anything. Nope.

[Raydãĥ · Rating 2 out of 5]

في ختام هذه الثلاثية «أسرار» يناقش "نور الدين" الهوس بأصول الأسرة والدم والقبيلة والوصول إلى الانهيار التام في الحروب الأهلية عام 1991م. تحكي أسرار قصة «كالامان» من مقديشو، شاب في الثلاثينيات، عاش تحت كنف جده بالقرب من حبيبته في الصغر التي تحمل شخصية بهيمية لرضاعتها من ذئبة في الطفولة، لتعود إليه من أميركا، فيرفض الزواج منها ليأخذ "نور الدين" القارئ في دهاليز الأسرار والأساطير الغامضة التي تلفها خيوط الدجل والشعوذة والسحر والجنس مهيمنا بها على المسرح العام للرواية. في مسيرته، يكثف «كالامان» البحث عن هويته وجذوره وحقيقة اسمه ليكتشف أنه جاء نتيجة اغتصاب جماعي لوالدته، فيدخل في تساؤلات الهوية والأصول في وطن متآكل، يقضم بعضه بعضا.

اقتباسات:
- للكذبة في الأقوال الصومالية المأثورة رجلا عرجاء، وللصدق رجل سليمة.
- إن الاشخاص الذين يحتفظون بأسرار يتمتعون بحيوية كبيرة، ويتعين عليهم أن يجدوا متنفسا لها .
- لا شيء يبقى مخفيا الى الأبد دون أن يفقد هويته الأصلية، ولا يبقى السر سرا إلى اﻷبد، فلا بد أن يعرفه أحد يجد له أهمية، ولا يهم إن افشى به أم لا.
- الأسئلة تشبه عظاما لا يكسوها اللحم. إذ تفقد الأسئلة التي مضى عليها زمن أهميتها..
- خرج عقلي من جسدي ومشى فوق أرض شباب.

[Saad Abdulmahmoud · Rating 4 out of 5]

Farah secrets is part of his Blood in the Sun trilogy. Secrets that takes place in the early 1990s in Mogadishu on the eve of Somalia’s civil war and ends before the civil war begins.

Kalaman owner of a computer company. He have a child with his girlfriend but does not wish to marry her. Sholoongo his childhood friend - the two explored their sexuality together as children- returns to Mogadishu from America after living there for twenty years. She just appeared in his home, desiring a child with him.
Kalaman retreats to his grandfather's farm for advice and willing to know his family history and his identity.

The book is filled with Sholoongo past and present escapades. The tragic family's past of Kalaman; Kalaman and Sholoongo relationship; the story of Kalaman's mother Damac; the story of his grandfather Nonno and his father.

Animals and birds of all kinds play significant roles throughout the book.

Sholoongo's origins and identity and that of Kalaman are mysterious as she was.

[Mab · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is almost unrateable, because I am so very ill-equipped to be its audience, and because of its surety. It is what it is - the fact that I found reading it an almost unmanageable slog is not because Farah has made mistakes, or doesn't know what he wants to say or do. Fundamentally, it was not enjoyable: too off-putting, too strange, too slippery, and all couched in a particularly difficult and awkward style. It would almost certainly make more sense if I was Somali. It might still be deeply unenjoyable, though, I simply don't know! And at root, I'm sure that Farah has created what he wanted to create, and it's not really important whether I liked it or not.

Not recommended, but I'm glad there's space in the world for books like this.

[Casey Hugelfink · Rating 5 out of 5]

Im Hintergrund die Ukraine... ich bin ja schon länger da und habe so einige Kriege miterlebt.
Kein Krieg kommt aus heiterem Himmel, nein, es ist immer so, dass es schon länger gärt. Nicht nur in der Weltpolitik, das allein verursacht noch keinen Krieg. Es gärt in den Völkern, in den Clans, in den Familien, in den einzelnen Seelen, es ist die Last der Vergangenheit, Geheimnisse, die an die Oberfläche drängen.
Du drehst einen Stein um und ein Skorpion sitzt drunter...
Was für ein treffendes Bild!
Das Buch kam genau zur richtigen Zeit, wo ich gerade damit beschäftigt bin, den Skorpion zu fangen und unschädlich zu machen...

[Bigi Parsons · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my style of writing

[Macie Rollins · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Lotta Yli-Hukkala]

Lukien maailman ympäri: Somalia

[Theodorus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Soms wollig en breedsprakig verhaal met onbegrijpelijke metaforen, dat zich in Somalië afspeelt.

[Realistanocturna08 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Me gustó la premisa sobre guerra en Somalia y vida en África pero no llegué a sentir nada en primeras 60 páginas y perdí en interés. Aunque está muy bien escrito y traducido

[Loren Brandman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very strange - gave up after 50 pages or so

[Bjorn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Secrets, Farah's 8th novel and the first one of his I've read, is in many ways a fascinating work - but also a frustrating one. It's a family drama set against the backdrop of the collapse of Somalia in the early 90. 30-something Kalaman is living a modern life as a computer programmer in Mogadishu, when suddenly his childhood crush Sholoongo comes back to Somalia from exile in the US to demand that he make her pregnant. He won't have to raise the child; as a much-repeated saying goes, a mother is everything, a father is nothing. And her arrival becomes the catalyst that makes all the old family secrets come bubbling to the surface as Kalaman starts questioning his parents and grandfather about his history while the country they live in starts falling apart.

Farah is a poet at heart, and his prose is beautiful even when dealing with violent subjects; multi-layered, mixing dreams and harsh reality, with enough clever little clues and symbolism to make it something more than just a standard soap opera. One thing that strikes me is the way he seems to strive to capture - without getting too obvious - a purely Somalian perspective, as opposed to a general African or post-colonial one; there are roots here reaching back past the 20th century, past Islam, back into ancient times; the Italians and the Brits might not be blameless, but the fault of the impending anarchy still lies with people's inability to stop using each other against each other. And while one may wonder whether the long-exiled Farah paints a perfectly realistic picture of Somalia (especially when it comes to sexual habits - at times, he makes this muslim country sound like a free love festival) it's still one of those novels that manages quite well to have personal issues mirror the political ones.

Still, that's not necessarily enough to carry a 330-page novel. Secrets doesn't keep its secrets as well as it might have - and by "well", I mean the thing you go to until the bucket breaks. While Farah makes good use of POV shifts to tell the same story from different angles and gradually uncover Kalaman's family's secrets, setting the story up in the first half and then slowly tying it all together in the second, the final pay-off simply isn't rewarding enough to justify the way he drags it out. The novel tends to plod, veering off into long monologues that sound too rehearsed, too constructed to really draw you in and care what happens; just makes you wish he'd get to the point already.

[kripsoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned about author Nuruddin Farah while researching contemporary African writers and was immediately intrigued by him. This novel won the 1998 Neudstadt International Prize for Literature which has also been awarded to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Octavio Paz, and this year to David Malouf Secrets is well-deserving of this prize for a multitude of reasons
Not many people have read African authors, especially contemporary African authors, and this is a shame. Nuruddin Farah's work is a perfect representation and a very strong introduction to the obscure African literary canon. This is a bold and challanging work--one that will teach readers an awful lot about Somalian life and engage them in a brilliant story, as well
The story is set in Mogadiscio, Somalia during the horrific civil war, but readers should not let the setting frighten them away. One need not know anything about the conflict in order to enjoy the book. Farah has taken care of all of the details readers require. The plot involves the protagonist Kalaman's experiences upon receiving a visit from a childhood friend Sholoongo who wishes to bear his child. Her mysterious appearance causes Kalaman to confront his past's secrets and discover his own true identity

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set against a background of national collapse - the descent of Somalia into complete misrule as a dictatorship falls in the face of tribal warfare - the story of this novel follows the members of a small family that is also in conflict with itself. The central character, Kalaman, is a middle-aged man with a service industry job in the capital city, Mogadishu. When a childhood friend, now living in America, shows up mysteriously, her arrival sets in motion a gradual unraveling of long-held, fiercely guarded family secrets.

Readers should be prepared for a multi-layered narrative, which moves at a glacial pace through long dialogues and monologues, analyzing a complexity of clues to the mystery at its heart. Meanwhile, there are motifs of birds, moments of magical realism, fits of melodrama, and a running gloss of folk tales, epigrams, and portentous dreams. Points of view shift among characters, and we realize that while all of this is going on, a culture with its beginnings in a pre-Islamic world is now coming to its end. This is a sophisticated novel for sophisticated readers, its contents meant to tease the intellect as well as the more prurient imagination.

[Johnny D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nuruddin Farah's prose is a thing of beauty. His use of language is simple and fluid while maintaining a certain richness. I believe what aids Farah's prose is the fact that English is not his first language. I think this has heightened his consciousness of communicating for meaning. Farah does not dress up his language unnecessarily but neither does he fear writing poetically.

Joseph Conrad, for me, is a writer whose facility with English is similarly enhanced by not having been a native speaker (although Farah certainly learned English at a much younger age).

Secrets is an exploration of one Mogadishu family's devastating secrets. On one level we see the sordid secrets of a Somali family unfold while on another level we witness Farah's haunting commentary on Somalia's fractiousness.

Elegant writing, metaphor, magic realism, and an engaging story. Some people might be disturbed by the sexual content, but it is a necessary part of the tale.

[Grady Ormsby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Secrets is the third book in Nuruddin Farah's Blood in the Sun trilogy. (Maps and Gifts are the other two.) Set in Mogadiscio and its suburb Afgoi, Secrets has the same conflicts as featured in the previous books: tribal/modern, clan/other, male/female, Afro/Euro, urban/rural. Probably the most important theme, however, is the profound struggle between fantasy and reality. Reminescient of García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude Farah's colorful, image-rich prose is filled with symbolist native flora and fauna, shape-shifting illusions, enigmatic myths, astonishing dream worlds and terrifing nightmares. Set amidst impending civil war Secrets is the story of Kalaman, the protagonist, who delves into the past in an attempt to uncover secrets of his family history and his own personl identity.

[Ferris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, by Somali author, Nuruddin Farah, takes the reader on a long, slow journey into the culture of Somalia. Reading this book, I felt perpetually in that state of mind between sleep and dream. The story stands on its own, but is also metaphorically the country itself just about to break into open military conflict. Metaphors abound, dream and reality are difficult to separate, and each page must be savored.

I give it four stars rather than five because after a couple hundred pages, the waking dream state becomes a bit old. I wanted the story itself to move forward a bit faster.

[Cheryl]

From an old list: by Nuruddin Farah
Gifts, the first novel in Nuruddin Farah's Blood in the Sun trilogy, which also includes Secrets and Maps, is the powerful tale of a Somali family and the struggles of its powerful matriarch to keep it whole. Here, Nuruddin Farah delves into the ways people -- families, communities, countries -- are bound together by what they are willing to give and what they choose to receive

[Wangũi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it, but I don't know if that was so much the story or the environmental/nature elements in it that I found fascinating. Probably the latter. I finished the book and wondered what the 3 secrets attached to the one corpse were... A very twisted narrative, but the details of honeyguides, elephants, tamarind trees, the Shebelle, etc, etc were worth it for me- and in the end Sholoongo goes away, so there's that.

[Jude · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was unsure whether I would enjoy this book or not. I found it fascinating. Farah has a unique style of writing which is evocative, provoking and intriguing. Not light reading, but thoroughly worth the effort.