The Modern Novel

Biography

Nuruddin Farah was born in 1945 in Baidoa, Somalia. His father was a merchant and his mother a poet. He was initially educated in Ogaden in what is now Ethiopia. After leaving the area following serious fighting in the area, he went to study at Panjab University in Chandigarh, India. He published his first novel when he was twenty. His third novel From a Crooked Rib was published in the Heinemann African Writers series and brought him greater attention. He was still at university when he wrote it. The Somali language was only given a standard transcription in 1973 and he wrote a story in it but then soon switched to writing his novels in English. He has gone on to write a series of well-received novels, stories and essays and has taught at various universities in the United States.

Other links

Nuruddin Farah
Nuruddin Farah
Nuruddin Farah: a life in writing
Somalia in the fiction of Nuruddin Farah
Interview
Interview