WINTER OF MY SPRING

In Somalia, a religious extremist kidnaps a young girl and her friends.

In the village of Marka, 13-year-old Rada and her best friends, Mika and Sara, are leaving school when a group of men abduct them. Rada, certain her father will rescue her, is immediately defiant. The men take the girls to a remote compound run by Shaban, a radical cult leader who perverts the teachings of Islam to justify his kidnapping girls and bombing villages. At the compound, Shaban terrorizes the girls, kills the men who kidnapped them, and shows them propaganda of villages decimated by those he calls the “enemies of Allah.” Shaban marries the girls off, choosing Rada for himself. Though even Rada recognizes Shaban’s power (“Knowledge of things beyond my understanding seemed to seep out of him”), she loathes him, and she and Mika continue to resist him as much as possible. Sara, however, the most docile of the group, quickly succumbs to Shaban’s brainwashing. Wanting to fight alongside Shaban, Sara—only 12 years old—enlists in a violent mission that has devastating consequences. Later, though physical escape seems possible, the girls must face the reality that, within their culture, they’re seen as tainted and left with few, if any, options to lead independent lives. As Nora, one of Shaban’s wives, tells them early on in their abduction, “Once you come here, no one wants you…once you’re taken, you belong only to Shaban.” Kusow, a Somali-born author and teacher, authentically portrays a real-world issue in this powerful novel. The prose, however, could use more polish (“A thought occurred to me at that very second”). Still, Kusow is a born storyteller who movingly conveys the danger and hopelessness of the girls’ situation.

An involving, profound tale that could use additional editing.