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Nuruddin Farah · 1986 CE · Novel · East African · Contemporary

Askar is born in the Ogaden as his father dies and is raised by Misra, an Oromo woman from the highlands who is not of his people; when the territory becomes the object of a war he is sent to relatives in Mogadishu to be educated into a nation. The telling turns between I, you and he, so the boy is never quite one person. First of the Blood in the Sun trilogy, and the book that carried Farah's name beyond Africa.

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Attributes

Genre
PoliticalPsychologicalComing-of-Age
Theme
Identity & SelfMotherhoodWar & ViolenceColonialism
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
InnocentThe Great Mother
Plot structure
BildungsromanNonlinear / FracturedUnreliable Narrator
Symbol / motif
The WoundBloodThe Mirror
Conflict
vs Selfvs Society
Mode / tone
ModernistRealist
Culture / tradition
East African

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