Synopses & Reviews
"This woman is a major hero of our time." —Richard Dawkins
Ayaan Hirsi Ali captured the worlds attention with Infidel, her compelling coming-of-age memoir, which spent thirty-one weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Now, in Nomad, Hirsi Ali tells of coming to America to build a new life, an ocean away from the death threats made to her by European Islamists, the strife she witnessed, and the inner conflict she suffered. It is the story of her physical journey to freedom and, more crucially, her emotional journey to freedom—her transition from a tribal mind-set that restricts womens every thought and action to a life as a free and equal citizen in an open society. Through stories of the challenges she has faced, she shows the difficulty of reconciling the contradictions of Islam with Western values.
In these pages Hirsi Ali recounts the many turns her life took after she broke with her family, and how she struggled to throw off restrictive superstitions and misconceptions that initially hobbled her ability to assimilate into Western society. She writes movingly of her reconciliation, on his deathbed, with her devout father, who had disowned her when she renounced Islam after 9/11, as well as with her mother and cousins in Somalia and in Europe.
Nomad is a portrait of a family torn apart by the clash of civilizations. But it is also a touching, uplifting, and often funny account of one womans discovery of todays America. While Hirsi Ali loves much of what she encounters, she fears we are repeating the European mistake of underestimating radical Islam. She calls on key institutions of the West—including universities, the feminist movement, and the Christian churches—to enact specific, innovative remedies that would help other Muslim immigrants to overcome the challenges she has experienced and to resist the fatal allure of fundamentalism and terrorism.
This is Hirsi Alis intellectual coming-of-age, a memoir that conveys her philosophy as well as her experiences, and that also conveys an urgent message and mission—to inform the West of the extent of the threat from Islam, both from outside and from within our open societies. A celebration of free speech and democracy, Nomad is an important contribution to the history of ideas, but above all a rousing call to action.
Review
“We are continually forced to confront the notion of Muslim 'grievances,' 'resentments,' and 'humiliations', as well as compelled to deal with the stone-faced fanatics who are the murderous envoys of such horrible hate-based energy. Here by contrast is the story of a young African woman, born into Islam, who was given every possible occasion to feel grievance, resentment, and humiliation yet who has employed her own life as an example of internationalism, tolerance, multiculturalism, and the redemption of others. Her humor and irony and fortitude constitute the finest counterpoint to the surly cult of death that presses itself against us. For me, the three most beautiful words in the emerging language of secular resistance to tyranny are Ayaan Hirsi Ali.”
--Christopher Hitchens
Review
“There is more wisdom and compassion in this book than can be found in most university libraries--and surely more than has been published in the Muslim world since the time of the Prophet.
Nomad is both a moving account of her personal journey out of bondage, and trumpet blast to awaken westerners at all points along the political spectrum: there is a war of ideas that must be waged and won in the Muslim world, and we misunderstand the true tenets of Islam at our peril. Hirsi Ali’s voice and example are simply indispensable. There is no one like her—and we need thousands like her.”
--Sam Harris, author of the New York Times bestsellers, The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation
Review
“This moving account by a remarkably brave woman of her personal journey from the pre-modern mindset of nomadic Somali society to a modern Western one provides a searing indictment of the cult of ‘multiculturalism’ and ‘diversity’ which are disabling other Muslims in the West from making a similar transition, and making their youth turn to radical Islam and becoming ‘jihadis’. More than many academic tomes this personal memoir provides a cogent account of how and why Islam poses the gravest threat to Western liberal societies.”
--Deepak Lal, James Coleman Professor of International Development Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
Review
“In this achingly honest, human, and heartfelt account of her family and personal history, Ayaan Hirsi Ali offers a cornucopia of riveting, eye-opening insights into the harsh realities of Muslim domestic life and the destructive impact of Islamic dogma on individual freedom and dignity. Everyone who cares about the Enlightenment values that so many of us take for granted in the West will want to read this deeply moving, beautifully written book. In an age of empty celebrity, Hirsi Ali is a truly great woman, and in NOMAD she has written an instant classic.”
--Bruce Bawer, author of While Europe Slept and Surrender
Review
“In this brilliant sequel to her seminal
Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali warns the West of the dangers of the failure to integrate the Muslim populations in our midst.
Nomad is a ‘must read’!”
--Winston Spencer-Churchill
Review
“Illuminating analysis… [NOMAD’s] special strength…lies in the way that her arguments and perceptions are rooted in personal experience…. She rages eloquently…writes revealingly. NOMAD is an excellent read.”
--New York Review of Books “Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s new memoir is the most powerful book you will have read in a long time.” --Christian Science Monitor
"Brilliant” --Tunku Varadarajan, The Daily Beast
Synopsis
Hirsi Ali tells the stirring story of her search for a new life in America in this vivid philosophical memoir, picking up where INFIDEL left off.
Synopsis
Picking up where "Infidel" leaves off, "Nomad" tells the stirring story of Ali's search for a new life in America. A brave, inspiring, and beautifully written memoir.--"The New York Times."
About the Author
Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, was raised Muslim, and spent her childhood and young adulthood in Africa and Saudi Arabia. In 1992, Hirsi Ali came to the Netherlands as a refugee. She earned her college degree in political science and worked for the Dutch Labor party. She denounced Islam after the September 11 terrorist attacks and now serves as a Dutch parliamentarian, fighting for the rights of Muslim women in Europe, the enlightenment of Islam, and security in the West.