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Lion's Binding Oath and Other Stories
9781946395078
Religious and ethnic conflict may be the Horn of Africa's most enduring recent legacy. But beneath its recent history of war and displacement lies human stories—families, clans, lovers, neighbors, and friends, all bound together through common cultural, religious, and historical ties.
The Lion's Binding Oath, Ahmed Ismail Yusuf's collection of short stories, introduces readers to the people of Somalia and their struggles: their humanity, faith, identity, friendship, and family bonds, as whispers of war grow louder around them. Through stories that span the years before and during Somali's civil war, Yusuf weaves together Somalia's political, social, and religious conflicts with portrayals of the country's love of poetry, music, and soccer.
Yusuf's collection is a powerful examination of love and resilience in a country torn apart by war, and written with deep compassion for the lives of its characters.
Paperback
15.95
$
Pub Date:
June 2018
Praise For:
Lion's Binding Oath and Other Stories
"While Yusuf’s book is fiction, he incorporates significant facts into his storytelling. In this way, The Lion’s Binding Oath becomes not just entertainment, but also a creative disclosure about Somalia’s people, culture, and history." —New Pages
"Yusuf draws us in with descriptions that bring beauty to minute details....In tone recalling Maya Angelou's Gather Together in My Name, this work will appeal to readers of literary and African fiction." — Library Journal
"[...]Yusuf is unquestionably talented, with a knack for stories focused on injustice and the anxiety of separation, be it over time or distance. [...] Informative and direct storytelling from a corner of Africa that's poorly understood in the West." —Kirkus
"This mature debut is graphic...as it reveals how children grow up around violence and war. They still play, learn, tell stories, and try to get along despite threats and the police presence in their everyday lives. For readers interested in soccer and international affairs, this thin volume will enhance fiction collections." — School Library Journal
"...compelling tales covering many recent experiences of [Yusuf's] beleaguered people..." — Minnesota Alumni Magazine
Through his entertaining stories, Ahmed Ismail Yusuf captures the world of Somalia's pre-war past and the tragedy of what was lost there. Alternately comic, allegorical, heartbreaking, they provide a window into the richness of Somali storytelling.—Brad Kessler, author Birds in Fall
Through The Lion’s Binding Oath, Ahmed Ismail Yusuf offers a beautiful insight in Somali culture, tradition and heritage. It is as if you are sat down, by the fire, in the plains, under a blanket of stars, and told story after story until even time loses meaning. —JJ Bola, author No Place to Call Home
The Lion's Binding Oath overlays rich imagery and human drama over a historical and political view of Somalia that Westerners don't often get to see. Going beyond pirates and terrorism, it delves into issues of tribe, gender and family in an interwoven series of stories told from many perspectives. It is a much-needed addition to the cannon of African literature and will find a happy home among Achebe, Thiong'o, and Okri. —Natalie C. Anderson, author City of Saints and Thieves
Ahmed Ismail Yusuf’s The Lion’s Binding Oath and Other Stories offers tender memories of his pre-war homeland of Somalia. Even as the drums of war sound to foreground the onset of strife, so do rhythms of the everyday, all captured in hypnotic prose. A timely intervention that affirms all is not lost—in Yusuf’s imagined homeland—and the nation currently under reconstruction. —Peter Kimani, author Dance of the Jakaranda
Creators
Author: Ahmed Ismail Yusuf has lived in Minneapolis since fleeing Somalia in the late 80s. He did not speak English when he arrived, he was a high-school dropout, and he was not sure what his actual age was. Today he has two college degrees and is the author of Somalis in Minnesota, published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press. In 2017, The History Theatre of St. Paul, Minnesota produced his short play, “A Crack in the Sky,” a memoir about how Yusuf found inspiration in Maya Angelou and Muhammad Ali during his early days as an immigrant to the U.S.