Close Sesame

Winner of the prestigious Neustadt International Prize for Literature, Nuruddin Farah is often praised as Africa’s greatest contemporary novelist. The trilogy Variations on the Theme on an African Dictatorship, in particular, has earned him enormous critical acclaim and is considered “the centerpiece of Farah’s achievement” by The Guardian.

In Close Sesame, the final book in the trilogy, the characters are deeply entwined in the waking nightmare of a police state. An old man finds himself poised in mortal combat with an elusive and cunning enemy in an atmosphere where the distinction between public and private justice is obscured.

“Farah takes us deep into territory he has charted and mapped and made uniquely his own…. He excels in giving voice to tragedy in remote places of the world that speak directly to our own hearts.”—Chinua Achebe

“An eloquent indictment of tyrannies committed both under Islamic law and in the name of Socialism.”—The Observer (London)

“Exuberant, inventive, and mind-blowing.”—Salon.com

Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship is published in partnership with the College of Saint Benedict as part of a series honoring the legacy of S. Mariella Gable, a distinguished teacher at the College.