Knots / Nuruddin Farah

Second of a trilogy ; Links is first, Crossbones is third.

Farah revisits Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia and the setting of many of his previous works (e.g., Links), to discover the humanity in the ruins of that war-torn city. The narrative is centered on Cambara, who has left her home in Canada following the death of her son and the disintegration of her marriage to reclaim a house that her family owned years ago. But a minor warlord has taken over the house, and her cousin Zaak, her one contact, chews qaat all day and refuses to further her somewhat unrealistic mission. Not to be deterred, Cambara hooks up with a woman's network and practically adopts two teenage boys, one a former gun-toting mercenary and the other an orphan from the streets. Eventually, Cambara decides she wants to direct a play she has written, based on African myths, and the house is soon taken over and renovated with the help of the women's network. In the end, her mother travels from Canada to witness Cambara's unlikely success.