Book News: March-April 2024

A character driven novel, it opens in Norway when a middle-class couple, originally from Somalia, discover their estranged and radicalized son has killed himself in a suicide terrorist attack. Their son was a member of the terrorist group al-Shabaab in Somalia. Mugdi, a retired diplomat, and his wife, Gacalo, have led peaceful, secular lives since immigrating to Oslo years ago, where they raised their daughter, Timiro, and their son, Dhaqaneh.

Mugdi refuses to mourn his son’s death and says, “How can I mourn a son who caused the death of so many people?” However, Gacalo secretly maintained contact with Dhaqaneh, unable to ostracize him, despite his beliefs and actions. Before his death, she promised Dhaqaneh she’d take care of his wife and children if they ever needed anything. Grief-stricken and conflicted by loyalty, Mugdi and Gacalo grapple with how to manage their lives and the lives of their son’s family.

Eventually, Waliya, Dhaqaneh’s widow, and her children, Naciim and Saafi, arrive in Norway. With their different ideologies, the clash between Waliya and Mugdi is inevitable. Mugdi spent an incredible amount of money and worked tirelessly with Norway’s immigration system to arrange the family’s relocation to Oslo, despite his fears that Waliya could be a terrorist or sympathizer. This is especially concerning to him when he meets Waliya at the airport. She confronts him with a hostile attitude, completely covered, wearing her wearing her burqua and veil.

Ideologies in both Muslim radical groups and Norwegian native-born extremist groups are explored in this thought-provoking story, along with the Somali diaspora, family loyalties, and xenophobia.

North of Dawn is partially based on Farah’s life. Tragically, in 2014, Nuruddin Farah’s younger sister, Basra Farah Hassan, was murdered along with 20 other people in a terrorist attack by the Taliban in Kabul. She was a nutritionist working for UNICEF.

An eloquently written novel, it’s about a decades-long friendship between two unique women, Agnes and Polly, now octogenarians. They’ve lived in Fellowship Point, Maine, all their lives and are passionate about being stewards of the glorious unspoiled 145-acre wildlife sanctuary on the Maine coast, affectionately known as “The Point.”

Agnes is the never-married author of a successful children’s book series, When Nan. Unknown to anyone except her editor, she also writes a series of adult novels called Franklin Square, written under a pseudonym. Even her best friend Polly is unaware of these books. Polly, a sweet, loyal woman with three children, has been married and devoted her life for 60 years to an overbearing, demanding professor, whom Agnes dislikes. Both women take turns narrating this poignant, indelible story, sometimes in the form of letters.

In 2000, after Agnes is blindsided by a cancer diagnosis, she resolves to ensure the “Point” is protected into perpetuity and never affected by any future development. Motivated by the actions of a developer in the process of purchasing and developing the land, Agnes hopes to place the land into a protective Trust. However, the other shareholders must be convinced to side with Agnes. One of the shareholders is Polly, whose son heartily approves of the development. Then there is Maud, a New York editor. A huge fan of the When Nan series, Maud goes to Maine to ask Agnes to write her memoirs, which Agnes agrees to do. Unfortunately for Agnes, her secret identity as the Franklin Square series author may be disclosed, which is something she is adamantly opposed to, since so many dark secrets would be revealed and create fateful results. A joy to read, I thoroughly enjoyed Fellowship Point with its singular characters and themes.

Suspenseful, enlightening, and entertaining, Thunderhead is the second in the Nora Kelly series. I chose to review this particular novel in the series of five because it was the first one I read and my favorite. Readers can read the series in any order but as always in a series, there is more continuity when reading the books in order.

Nora, an archaeologist living in Santa Fe, receives a letter by her father written 16 years earlier but curiously, was mailed recently. Her father disappeared years ago and was believed killed in an accident while exploring ancient ruins in Utah. Mysteriously, his body was never found. His enigmatic letter indicates he discovered an ancient civilization in southwest Utah, possibly Quivira, a mythical Anasazi city of gold. Nora becomes the leader of an expedition to explore this area in Utah’s rugged canyon country. However, in her quest she encounters frightening obstacles, including murder, as if some person or supernatural power is attempting to terrorize her into abandoning the expedition. An engrossing mystery filled with authentic Southwestern culture and history, primarily in Utah and New Mexico, I especially appreciated the stunning description of the natural landscape and the details concerning artifacts. It’s evident Preston has a deep admiration for the area and its culture by his writing and extensive knowledge.

From Preston’s website: “Douglas Preston has published thirty-six books of both nonfiction and fiction.  He is the co-author, with Lincoln Child, of the Pendergast series of thrillers. He writes about archaeology and anthropology for the New Yorker Magazine, and he worked as an editor at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and taught nonfiction writing at Princeton University. He currently serves as President of the Authors Guild, the nation’s oldest and largest association of authors and journalists.  He has also written for National Geographic, Natural History, Smithsonian, Harper’s, and Travel & Leisure, among others on the history of the American Southwest. In the course of his journalistic profession Preston has explored lost temples in the jungles of Cambodia, been the first to enter a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, and ridden on horseback across thousands of miles of the American Southwest.”

His non-fiction book, The Lost City of the Monkey God, “tells the true story of the discovery of an ancient, Pre-Columbian city in an unexplored valley deep in the Mosquitia Mountains of Honduras.” Readers may be interested in reading The Monster of Florence and the Amanda Knox case, Trial by Fury, both gripping true mysteries Preston authored. I highly recommend these books.

The September 1, 2023, article in the Pasatiempo Magazine, published by the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper states, ‘Preston left his job at the American Museum of Natural History and moved in 1986 to Santa Fe to chase his dream. “I came to New Mexico to be a writer,” he says. “And for years and years, I could hardly make a living as a writer. But finally, it started to work, and I had some successful books. And it just went on from there.”’