Book Launch & Discussion: My Name is Sahal by Dr. Nuur Hassan

Join Kayd Somali Arts & Culture for the launch of My Name is Sahal, the highly anticipated debut novel by Dr. Nuur Hassan, a UK-based writer whose work explores exile, faith, and the search for belonging.

What happens to a boy whose country vanishes just as he becomes a man?

In My Name is Sahal, is an intimate debut novel, the reader is drawn into the soul of a generation born in Somalia in the early 1970s, raised in peaceful neighbourhoods, nurtured by strong schools, and dreaming of futures as doctors, teachers, poets, and engineers. Then came the collapse: civil war, exile and rupture.

Told through the reflective voice of Sahal, now in his fifties and living in Europe, the novel travels from the dusty classrooms of Baidoa to the chaos of displacement and finally to the quiet, complex rhythms of life in the diaspora. Along the way, we meet unforgettable mentors, friendships forged in hardship, and the ghosts of those left behind. This is more than one man’s journey. It is the story of a lost era, of resilience in the face of loss, and of the quiet courage it takes to remember. My Name is Sahal is a tribute to those who survived, those who disappeared, and those still trying to piece together who they were meant to be.

Dr. Nuur Hassan is a UK-based author whose work explores themes of exile, identity, faith, and belonging. My Name is Sahal, his third book and first novel, marks his debut into literary fiction after two earlier works of non-fiction.

Known for his reflective and poetic style, Dr. Hassan’s writing draws on the silences, displacements, and spiritual depth of the Somali diaspora experience. Through essays, books, and storytelling, he weaves narratives that bridge continents and generations, capturing both the struggles and the resilience of migrant lives.

With My Name is Sahal, he invites readers into a world shaped by memory and faith, where the search for home becomes a journey of the heart as much as of geography.

Event Host: Ubah Ali

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