Winner of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature
Farah's landmark
Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship
trilogy is comprised by the novels
Sweet and Sour Milk
,
Sardines
, and
Close Sesame
. In this volume, the second of the three, a woman loses her job as editor of the national newspaper and then finds her efforts to instill her daughter with a sense of dignity and independence threatened by an oppressive government and the traditions of conservative Islam.
brilliantly combines a social commentary on life under a dictatorship with a compassionate exploration of African feminist issues.