Nuruddin Farah is the author of eleven novels which have been translated into more than twenty languages and have won numerous awards. Born in Baidoa, Somalia, he lives in Cape Town, South Africa, and Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, where he is Distinguished Professor of Literature at Bard College.
'Affecting...delightfully poetic... maintains drama and direction.
Most successful is Farah's dramatisation of the racial tensions and
violence commonplace in many African cities' * Guardian *
'A rich exploration of political and social crises ... The opening
scene practically blows off the front cover of the novel.' *
Washington Post *
'Farah's powerful story of a shattered family makes vivid the human
repercussions of political chaos and violence.' * BBC.com *
'Farah ... puts his skilled character development on display in
this latest work ... [and] does a fine job illustrating the
competing societal forces in African culture - from the
cosmopolitan nightlife of Nairobi to the pervasive violence and
oppression in places like Somalia ... an engaging read.' * NY Daily
News *
'This novel - Farah's 12th - takes us deep into the domestic life
of a sophisticated African family, with great emotional effect ...
Each of the kids ... becomes starkly real in their intelligence,
ingenuity, anger and grief. Even their outrageous mother (and her
selfish choices) seems credible ... This family, our families,
Africa and Europe and America, have never seemed closer in the way
we live now - and this engaging novel, from its explosive beginning
to its complex yet uplifting last scenes, shows us why.' -- Alan
Cheuse * NPR *
'True to Farah's style, Hiding in Plain Sight is strange and
haunting ... His writing borders on the poetic ... Scenes of
everyday life ... lull us into believing the story could be
unfolding anywhere, until we're jolted by mentions of blast-proof
windows next to the flatscreen TV or metal detectors at the mall
entrance ... [Hiding in Plain Sight] adds to an impressive
four-decade body of work that has helped illuminate a country and
culture that might otherwise have remained hidden behind the fog of
war.' * Toronto Star *
'Absorbing and provocative ... [Farah's] characters are given heft
through personal histories and anecdotes, and he writes evocatively
about everything from Nairobi traffic to Kenyan game reserves to,
importantly, how Somalis are seen not just through the eyes of
others, but through their own.' * USA Today *
'Gracefully pulling together social issues with the seismography of
a single family and underscoring it all with hints at the Somali
diaspora of the 1990s, Farah once again offers a complex look at
the struggle and joy of finding home' * Shelf Awareness *
'With delicacy and compassion, Farah ... fashions a domestic
chamber piece where motives, yearnings and regrets intersect among
these complex, volatile personalities against a wider backdrop of
religious and cultural conflict, social and political upheaval, and
even "family values" in post-millennial Africa ... An unassuming
triumph of straightforward, topical storytelling that both adds to
and augments a body of work worthy of a Nobel Prize.' * Kirkus
Reviews (starred) *
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