Aman: The Story of a Somali Girl (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780679762096)

This is the extraordinary first-person account of a young woman's coming of age in Somalia and her struggles against the obligations and strictures of family and society. By the time she is nine, Aman has undergone a ritual circumcision ceremony; at eleven, her innocent romance with a white boy leads to a murder; at thirteen she is given away in an arranged marriage to a stranger. Aman eventually runs away to Mogadishu, where her beauty and rebellious spirit leads her to the decadent demimonde of white colonialists. Hers is a world in which women are both chattel and freewheeling entrepreneurs, subject to the caprices of male relatives, yet keenly aware of the loopholes that lead to freedom. Aman is an astonishing history, opening a window onto traditional Somali life and the universal quest for female self-awareness.

Author: Virginia Lee Barnes
ISBN-10: 0679762094
ISBN-13: 9780679762096
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Language: English
Published: 08/29/1995
Pages: 368
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.62lbs
Size: 7.98h x 5.26w x 0.83d

Review Citation(s):
School Library Journal 02/01/1996 pg. 132