This Is Where I Am
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published:13th Feb '14
Currently unavailable, our supplier has not provided us a restock date
A tender and eye-opening novel about loss and survival, and an unlikely friendship between a Glaswegian widow and a Somali asylum seeker
When recently widowed Deborah Maxwell is assigned by the Scottish Refugee Council to act as mentor to Abdi Hassan, a Somali refugee, the two are drawn into an awkward friendship. They must spend a year together, meeting once a month in different parts of Glasgow. As recently-widowed Deborah opens Abdi's eyes to her beloved city and its people, he teaches her about the importance of family – and of laying your ghosts to rest. All Abdi has brought with him is his four-year-old daughter, Rebecca, who lives in a silence no one can reach. Until, one day, she starts talking. And they discover why she had stopped...
So it’s surprising that this story of tentative friendship is also an unexpectedly humorous affair ... Generous-spirited, big-hearted depiction of life behind the statistics * Daily Mail *
A story of tragedy told with such eloquence and elegance as to renew our faith in the resilience of the human spirit * Kerry Young, author of Pao *
This was the best novel I read on holiday ... A brilliant story, beautifully told by Campbell * Alistair Campbell, Metro *
The writing is bold, gritty and fearless * The Sunday Times *
One of the most powerful novels I’ve read in a long time. Unvarnished and without sentimentality, This Is Where I Am forces us to reassess our notion of the refugee in the modern world. Like all great survival stories, Abdi Hassan’s is dogged by horror and grotesque ill-fate; yet it is Abdi’s quiet courage and dignity that endures in the memory long after the final page. Think you have a social conscience? Read this, weep and think again * Helen Walsh, author of Brass *
This Is Where I Am is subtle, compassionate and completely gripping. It's the best kind of page-turner, one where you race through to the end because you can't bear to abandon the characters. Wonderful * Shelley Harris, author of Jubilee *
Fans of The Other Hand will enjoy this heartbreaking yet uplifting tale which solves the heartbreaking mystery * Bookseller *
ISBN: 9781408832738
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 374g
480 pages