Contents
Nuruddin Farah
Exploring dictatorship, family and exile through novels such as From a Crooked Rib and Maps.
From a Crooked Rib · Maps
- Born
- 24 November 1945
- Birthplace
- Baidoa, Somalia
More people
Nuruddin Farah
Nuruddin Farah is a Somali novelist whose fiction examines power in both households and states. He spent decades abroad while keeping Somalia at the centre of his writing.
Early life
Language and poetry
Grew up with a mother who was an oral poet and studied several languages.
Studies in India
Attended Panjab University, studying philosophy, literature and sociology.
Career
- 1970
First novel
Published From a Crooked Rib while establishing himself as an English-language writer.
- 1970s–1990s
Exile and teaching
Lived abroad after warnings that returning to Somalia could lead to arrest.
- 1990s onward
International career
Continued writing across borders and received the 1998 Neustadt Prize.
Selected work
From a Crooked Rib
Follows a young woman resisting an arranged marriage.
Maps
Examines identity and belonging against the background of the Ogaden conflict.
Gifts
Explores dependence, aid and relationships in Somalia.
Beyond work
Return visit
Visited Somalia in 1996 after more than twenty years away.
Family loss
His sister Basra, a diplomat, was killed in a 2014 attack in Kabul.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Institutional source ↗Photo: Simon Fraser University Public Affairs and Media Relations. CC BY 2.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
