The Private Apartments

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Pub Date May 02 2023 | Archive Date Jul 05 2023

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Description

Finalist, 2023 Writers' Union of Canada Danuta Gleed Literary Award
Finalist,
2024 Alberta Literary Awards
Brittle Paper 100 Notable African Books of 2023

Moving, insightful, linked stories about the determination of Somali immigrants — despite duty, discrimination, and an ever-dissolving link to a war-torn homeland.

In the insular rooms of The Private Apartments, a cleaning lady marries her employer’s nephew and then abandons him, a depressed young mother finds unlikely support in her community housing complex, a new bride attends weddings to escape her abusive marriage, and a failed nurse is sent to relatives in Dubai after a nervous breakdown. These captivating and compassionate stories eloquently showcase the intricate linkages of human experience and the ways in which Somalis, even as a diaspora, are indelibly connected.

Finalist, 2023 Writers' Union of Canada Danuta Gleed Literary Award
Finalist,
2024 Alberta Literary Awards
Brittle Paper 100 Notable African Books of 2023

Moving, insightful, linked stories about...


Advance Praise

"Idman Nur Omar’s stories have a prismatic and glittering brilliance. The Private Apartments spans the world, tracing the passageways that join one life to another in writing that is wise, clear-eyed, and bold. This astonishing collection heralds a major new talent." - Madeleine Thien, author of Do Not Say We Have Nothing


"The closely observed characters in these stories amount to a poignant work of short fiction that could also be called a novel. Idman Nur Omar’s light touch insightfully connects the start of the 1991 Somali Civil War with the forms of life that grow from uprootedness and struggle into lasting shape elsewhere. This work, spanning continents and two decades, reveals a writer of incisive narrative vulnerability and asks us to read her intimate graces as a storyteller with mature tenderness. The distinctive pleasures of The Private Apartments’ stories are waiting. Why not come in?" - Canisia Lubrin, author of Code Noir


"The Private Apartments absorbed me from the very beginning. Idman Nur Omar is a skilled writer, whose sensitive and stirring depiction of the lives of Somali immigrants calls to mind Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies. I cared about these characters. I felt curious about them, gutted for them. I kept reading as much for the crisp, graceful writing and complicated, human portraits as to see what would happen next." - Shashi Bhat, author of The Most Precious Substance on Earth

"Idman Nur Omar’s stories have a prismatic and glittering brilliance. The Private Apartments spans the world, tracing the passageways that join one life to another in writing that is wise...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781487011383
PRICE $17.99 (USD)
PAGES 192

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