Secrets: A Novel

“With Secrets, Nuruddin Farah solidifies his reputation as one of the world’s great writers.”—Ishmael Reed

Set against the backdrop of the civil war in Somalia, this stunningly ambitious novel was a Los Angeles Times Book Review Best Fiction of the Year Selection. In Mogadiscio, the dictator is preparing to flee and clans are moving into the city, which rattles with machine gun fire. Society is collapsing under the weight of its own perversities. Unexpectedly, Kalaman, a businessman who owns a computer store, receives a visit from his childhood crush, who has returned from America to take him up on an old pledge—and have his child. The arrival of his house guest pulls Kalaman back into a past he thought he had escaped, rife with doubts and secrets that go deep into his heritage.

In a dazzling display of storytelling genius, Nuruddin Farah weaves together myth and magic, shape shifters and tribal wisdom, frank sexuality and lyrical prose as Kalaman revisits his own coming of age story and finds the heartbreaking tale of his famliy’s lost innocence amid the ravages of authoritarianism. With Secrets, the culmination of his Blood in the Sun trilogy, Farah draws readers through the rifts that have torn across Somali society and into the culture and mindset of his troubled country.

Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.