Winter of My Spring

Last month, Fartumo Kusow released her novel, Winter of My Spring. I was instantly interested in it for its setting in Somalia and focus on three girls struggling to survive being kidnapped by terrorists. Being prisoners is horrific, but what will life after escaping look like for Rada and her friends?

What I Liked:

Showing both the horrors of being held prisoner, but also the painful aftermath. Winter of My Spring doesn’t shy away from showing the atrocities Rada, Mika, and Sara face while being held captive. They’re forced into marriages and violated each night, and they’re inundated with extremist messaging meant to brainwash them. But even after two of them escape, they aren’t welcomed back to Marka as survivors; many treat them like they did something wrong. They’re accused of “transgressions” and shunned, kicked out of school, effectively seeing their futures thrown away. It only gets worse from there, and it made me so angry and heartbroken for them.
Closeness of family. Rada’s family is 100% supportive of her, and I appreciated that at least she and Mika are welcomed home and protected by their families, even if the greater village is much harsher in their judgment. Rada’s parents and extended family will do anything they can to keep her safe and give her a future.
Looking at Islam through different perspectives. Rada and her family are deeply devout, and she loves reading the Qur’an for guidance and comfort. But the terrorist Shabaan twists the words to suit his own extremist perspective. Some are quickly indoctrinated into his warped thinking, but Mika and Rada keep strong minds and trust themselves.
A desire for education. Winter of My Spring has been compared to The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré, a novel I loved. Like Adunni in that book, Rada is committed to learning, getting an education, and seeing what kind of career that will lead to. I admire her dedication and her parents’ full support in this, and I abhor those who would try to deny her these opportunities.

What Didn’t Work for Me:

It is a heavy read. Winter of My Spring tackles difficult themes and unflinchingly shows the horrors Rada faces. It took me a bit longer to get through this book simply because I wasn’t always up for seeing Rada suffer so much. It’s also starkly written, making the bleakness hit that much more.

Final Thoughts

Winter of My Spring is a compelling story, at once heartbreaking but also one full of resilience. It’s not an easy read, but it does portray a dark and very real side of Somalia alongside familial connection, inner strength, and faith. I will look out for more books from Fartumo Kusow, as well as more stories from Somalia.

Special thanks to SparkPress and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy Winter of My Spring here – it’s available as a paperback and ebook.

Winter of My Spring by Fartumo Kusow
Audience	Adult
Genre	Contemporary Fiction
Setting	Somalia
Number of Pages	296
Format I Read	Audiobook & Ebook (NetGalley ARCs)
Original Publication Date	March 31, 2026
Publisher	SparkPress

Official Summary

Perfect for readers of The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré, a searing and timely novel of survival, resilience, and reclaiming identity in the face of unthinkable adversity.

Set in the Lower Shabeele region of Somalia, Winter of My Spring is a story of what happens to Rada and her friends Mika and Sara after they are kidnapped by Al-Shabaab and forced to become child brides. For months, the girls live in fear and endure the harshest of conditions among their extremist kidnappers—but after Rada and Mika see Sara die as a suicide bomber, they know they must escape.

After running away from their captors, Rada and Mika manage to return home, only to find themselves rejected by their community because they’ve “known a man’s bed” and are therefore, according to their customs, considered ruined and broken women.

Winter of My Spring explores what happens to kidnapped girls during their captivity and after they survive the violence and abuse of their abductors. Like the protagonist in Call Her Freedom, by Tara Dorabji, Rada and Mika are forced to navigate a world that denies them autonomy, yet they find resilience and hope in the process of healing and self-discovery.

About the Author

Fartumo Kusow was born in Somalia but immigrated to Canada in 1991 at the start of Somalia’s civil war. Her novel Tale of a Boon’s Wife, published in 2017, received positive reviews from Harvard Review, Booklist, and This Magazine. Her first novel, Amran, was serialized in October Star, Somalia’s national newspaper, in 1984. She is the creator and host of two podcasts: Break the Silence, Build a Future, dedicated to advocacy and empowering survivors of intimate partner violence, and My Mother: The Person and the Patient. Fartumo lives in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.