Let’s Go Swimming on Doomsday

This gripping read offers an unflinching view of young people in desperate need of safety and healing after being caught up in political upheaval and violence. In her sophomore novel, Anderson (City of Saints & Thieves) tells the story of Abdi, a 16-year-old Somali in Kenya. While Sam, a U.N. relief worker, cares for the teen at her home as she searches for a suitable foster placement, traumatic episodes from Abdi’s past haunt his present. These include violent terrorist group Al Shabab abducting his older brother in Mogadishu, Somalia; his family’s kidnapping and imprisonment by U.S. forces in order to “motivate” Abdi to infiltrate Al Shabab and become an informant against his now radicalized sibling; and his experiences training, fighting, and killing alongside a ragtag group of boys while trying to gain the leaders’ trust, that he might later betray them to save his family. Anderson draws intriguing parallels between American-born Sam’s ongoing recovery from her upbringing in a Christian apocalyptic cult and Abdi’s encounter with Islamic fundamentalism; their recognition of shared trauma proves healing for both. Without melodrama, Abdi’s immediate first-person narrative conveys the physical abuse he endures; his anguished attempts to maintain a moral compass in the midst of widespread violence, chaos, and emotional manipulation; and his longing to find people he can trust. Ages 12–up. [em](Jan.) [/em]