Angry Queer Somali Boy
A Complicated Memoir
by Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali
AN INTIMATE, SEARING MEMOIR OF IDENTITY, SELF-DETERMINATION, AND RESILIENCE
(Photo: Philip Sutherland)
Kidnapped by his father on the eve of Somalia's societal implosion, Mohamed Ali was taken first to the Netherlands by his stepmother, and then later on to Canada. Unmoored from his birth family and caught between twin alienating forces of Somali tradition and Western culture, Mohamed must forge his own queer coming of age.
What follows in this fierce and unrelenting account is a story of one young man's nascent sexuality fused with the violence wrought by displacement.
PRAISE FOR MOHAMED ABDULKARIM ALI'S ANGRY QUEER SOMALI BOY: A COMPLICATED MEMOIR
“Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali is a remarkable writer.” — THE GLOBE AND MAIL, “Ten recent books on racism in Canada and the U.S.”
“A masterpiece of memoir, but also a cultural critique of the first order.” — THE ADVOCATE
“Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali has been through a lot since he was born almost 35 years ago in Mogadishu, Somalia. A ruinous civil war; migrating to the Netherlands and then to Canada, a Muslim in a strange land; a fractured family; discovering he was gay; homelessness, alcoholism and addiction. You might say that anyone who's lived through all that should write a memoir. That's what he did. It's called Angry Queer Somali Boy: A Complicated Memoir, and it was widely acclaimed as one of the best Canadian books of 2019.”— CBC BOOKS
“Heartbreaking.” — QUILL & QUIRE
"Both tragic and healing, Angry Queer Somali Boy offers resplendent writing that intimately grapples with placelessness, identity, and belonging, in all its forms." — HUDA HUSSEIN
"A stunning memoir that will resonate with every queer person who has been through the fire." — DIRIYE OSMAN, author of Fairytales for Lost Children
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176 pages
Finished book now available
RIGHTS SOLD
Canada: University of Regina Press, May 2020
ABOUT MOHAMED ABDULKARIM ALI
Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali, born in Mogadishu, Somalia, is a survivor. He survived civil war, a shattered family, dislocations, abuse, homelessness, addiction and alcoholism. He wrote his first book, Angry Queer Somali Boy: A Complicated Memoir, which was selected as one of the best works of non-fiction to come in 2019 by CBC Books, while living in a homeless shelter. He currently lives in Toronto.