The SBPL Evening Book Group meets in the Community Room on the 4th Tuesday of every month. Enjoy a stimulating conversation about books and exchange perspectives about characters and plot while getting to know your neighbors. In June we are reading Call Me American, a memoir by Abdi Nor Iftin.

After our June meeting, Evening Book Group will be on hiatus July and August, returning in September.

“Riveting… [Abdi Nor Iftin] had to endure famine, war, a precarious life as a refugee, and a visa-rejecting bureaucracy before a green-card lottery win, in 2014, enabled him to emigrate. His narrative is both panoramic and particular, full of irreverent asides, and suffused with appreciation for the humanity of others.”

—The New Yorker

“Absolutely remarkable and always as compelling as a novel… An essential immigrant story, one that is enlightening and immediate.” 

—Booklist

“[A] wrenching yet hopeful autobiography… Iftin’s extraordinary saga is not just a journey of self-advancement but a quest to break free from ethnic and sectarian hatreds.”

—Publishers’ Weekly

Abdi Nor Iftin first fell in love with America from afar. As a child, he learned English by listening to American pop artists like Michael Jackson and watching films starring action heroes like Arnold Schwarzenegger. When U.S. marines landed in Mogadishu to take on the warlords, Abdi cheered the arrival of these real Americans, who seemed as heroic as those of the movies.

When the civil war in Somalia began, Abdi Nor Iftin was five; he and his brother became the sole providers for the family while they also attended a madrassa. Amidst the daily shelling and the famine, Abdi had one escape: American movies and music. At neighborhood showings of Rambo, Commando, and The Terminator, Abdi learned of America, and taught himself English, and began to dream of a life in the United States. 

In his memoir Call Me American, Iftin recounts his harrowing, extraordinary, and uplifting story. His love of western culture and music earned him the name “Abdi American.” This became a liability when Islamic extremism took hold of Somalia. Evading conscription by al-Shabaab while secretly filing stories for NPR under penalty of death, he stayed in Somalia until he had no choice but to flee. He smuggled himself into Kenya, where a different but grinding life of hopelessness awaited. He spent days hiding silently in an apartment from raids by Kenyan police, once passing time

reading memoirs and watching more movies. And then, a stroke of incredible luck: he won the Diversity Visa Lottery. 

Now a proud and legal resident of Maine, Abdi is advocating for refugee rights and serving as a community navigator.

Print, ebooks and downloadable audiobook copies will be available to borrow from the Library or Libby. Email sbplprograms@southburlingtonvt.gov or call 802-846-4140 if you have questions, would like the Zoom link, or want to be added to the email list for this group.