In January 1991, when civil war came to Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, two-thirds of the city’s population fled. Among them was eight-year-old Asad Abdullahi. His mother murdered by a militia, his father somewhere in hiding, he was swept alone into the great wartime migration that scattered the Somali people throughout sub-Saharan Africa and the world.
This extraordinary book tells Asad’s story. Serially betrayed by the people who promised to care for him, Asad lived his childhood at a skeptical remove from the adult world, his relation to others wary and tactical. He lived in a bewildering number of places, from the cosmopolitan streets of inner-city Nairobi to the desert towns deep in the Ethiopian hinterland.
By the time he reached the cusp of adulthood, Asad had honed an array of wily talents. At the age of seventeen, in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, he made good as a street hustler, brokering relationships between hard-nosed businessmen and bewildered Somali refugees. He also courted the famously beautiful Foosiya, and, to the astonishment of his peers, seduced and married her.
Buoyed by success in work and in love, Asad put twelve hundred dollars in his pocket and made his way down the length of the African continent to Johannesburg, South Africa, whose streets he believed to be lined with gold. And so began a shocking adventure in a country richer and more violent than he could possibly have imagined.
A Man of Good Hope is the story of a person shorn of the things we have come to believe make us human—personal possessions, parents, siblings. And yet Asad’s is an intensely human life, one suffused with dreams and desires and a need to leave something permanent on this earth.
- Read-Along eBooks for Children
- Get Hooked on a Series- eBook
- Winter Reading
- eBook Shorts: Your Favorite Stories, but Shorter
- Percy Jackson Collection
- Graphic Novels & Comics
- Romance in the Middle, Ages That Is
- Living on the Edge
- Is It True Dukes Have More Fun?
- Danielle Steel eBooks
- True Stories of World War II
- Biographies of Early Americans - eBooks
- Shifting Sands
- See all
- Read by the Author
- Short Stories for Short Commutes
- Have You Listened to the Most Popular Titles in the Collection?
- Winter Listening
- Percy Jackson Collection
- Animals on Audiobooks
- Audiobooks the Whole Family Will Enjoy...
- Audie Award Winners
- Oldies But Goodies
- Get Hooked on a Series- Audio
- Audiobooks You Might Have Missed
- Listen and Learn
- Listen & Learn: Science Nonfiction
- See all
- 2024-2025 Great Stone Face Short List
- 2021 Library Reads
- 2022-2023 Great Stone Face Short List
- 2022-2023 Isinglass Award Short List
- 2022-2023 Flume Award Short List
- 2018-2022 Ladybug Award Nominees
- Romance Award Winners
- 2020 Library Reads
- Edgar Award Winners
- 2019 Library Reads
- Sci-Fi and Fantasy Award Winners
- 2018 Library Reads
- Book Shimmy Awards
- See all
- Travel Magazines
- News Magazines
- Heath & Fitness Magazines
- Gardening and Outdoor Living Magazines
- Popular Magazines
- House and Home Magazines
- Tech and Gaming Picks
- Magazines for History Lovers
- Crafts & Hobbies Magazines
- Food & Wine Magazines
- Delving Into Your Devices
- Magazines for Science Enthusiasts
- Hobby magazines
- See all