Boojin; a page turner that came the right time

In an event clad with government officials, writers, poets, and all the who’s who of Mogadishu was held in Jazeera Palace Hotel.
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Boojin, a new novel and a highly anticipated sensation is written by Sakariye Cismaan, a Somali journalist, author, and the editor-in-chief of Gorfayn, an independent and non-partisan online publication.

The novel depicts the lives of group of young Somalis in a civil war-torn Mogadishu in the early 2000s.

Boojin is the first of its kind as previous novels were based on earlier periods. It’s about the story of Yusuf and Muna, their love and tribulations. The book is a page turner and very difficult to put down once you start.

Muna and Yusuf, the protagonists are a young couple who attend the same high school. The story follows them at different phases and stages of their lives. This story explores the deep love Muna and Yusuf have for each other as each day passes, they want to get married but due to cultural beliefs and archaic traditions, they run into obstacles along the way.

In 1990, when the civil war broke out in Somalia, the government collapsed, and a significant number of Somali youths left for neighboring countries and many other countries including the US & the UK. With no institutions and functioning government, the lives of many Somalis were affected particularly those of younger generations.

The strength of this book lies in its subject matter, this book is significant in its role in bridging the literary gap of a period in Somali history where previous literary works haven’t explored yet.

The book was published in 2023.