Like all his novels, Nuruddin Farah's Links (Riverhead, 2004) is notable in many respects. But there's one in particular that Dewey-watchers will certainly appreciate: this book is the first that the Mogadishu-born Farah has written in English, his fourth language. As a direct result, two new LC subject headings were created -- Somali literature (English) and Somali fiction (English) -- and this week Dewey editors mapped two numbers to the first of these headings. We how have 820.8096773 for collections of, and 820.996773 for criticism of, Somali literature in English.
Update (added March 6, 2006): Guillaume is quite correct (see "Comments" below), and we apologize for the errors in this entry. Nuruddin Farah was born in Baidoa, not Mogadishu as stated here; he has written all of his major works in English; and we should not have suggested that the two new LC subject headings of November 24, 2004, were created as a direct result of Farah's authorship of Links in particular.
This is an awful mistake : Nuruddin has written ALL his books in English. None of the works of Nuruddin Farah that you are likely to read are translations. He published his first novel in English in 1970 (From a Crooked Rib). Could you please correct that HUGE mistake ???
Posted by: Guillaume Cingal | 06 March 2006 at 07:24 AM
Besides, Nuruddin was not born in Mogadishu/Mogadiscio, but in Baidoa, in 1945. These facts are all too easy to check, I think.
Posted by: Guillaume Cingal | 06 March 2006 at 07:25 AM