Angry Queer Somali Boy

Writing from a homeless shelter in downtown Toronto, Mohamed "Mo" Ali chronicles how he ended up there in this powerful and often irreverent memoir of exile, addiction, and racism. 

Kidnapped by his father on the eve of Somalia's societal implosion, Ali was taken first to the Netherlands by his stepmother, and then on to Canada. With its promise of freedom, opportunity and multiculturalism, his new home seemed to offer a new lease on life. But unable to fit in, he turned to partying and drugs. 

Interwoven with world history and sociopolitical commentary on Somalia, Europe and Canada, the story of this gay Muslim immigrant is told with tenderness in a refreshing and welcome new voice. (From University of Regina Press)

Angry Queer Somali Boy is Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali's first book.

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Interviews with Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali

The Sunday Edition27:07Exile, addiction and racism: what it means to be a gay, Muslim immigrant

Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali has been through a lot since he was born almost 35 years ago in Mogadishu, Somalia. A ruinous civil war; migrating to the Netherlands and then to Canada, a Muslim in a strange land; a fractured family; discovering he was gay; homelessness, alcoholism and addiction. You might say that anyone who's lived through all that should write a memoir. That's what he did. It's called Angry Queer Somali Boy: A Complicated Memoir, and it was widely acclaimed as one of the best Canadian books of 2019.