![]() ![]() The policemen's casual laugh when they spotted the pig's head on the rug. Several chapters are written exclusively in the voice of an elderly Somali cafe owner. "I thought, 'you are just going to have to see this one through.'" I have bitten off more than I can chew.' But there was no going back because I loved these people," she said with a laugh. "Every so often, well quite often, I thought, 'Now I have done it. ![]() ![]() She made contacts in the community and spent seven years talking, learning and writing. Strout began reading everything she could about Somalia and Somali migration to the United States. ![]() "Because if I didn't," she said, "It seemed to me that the Somali community would remain 'the other' in the book and that I would not have told the story I wanted to tell, which is that everybody's there and everybody is living in this community." It presented her a huge challenge: telling parts of the story from the viewpoint of Somali characters. Strout wanted to explore the inevitable conflicts inherent in a changing community. Like Minnesota, Maine has gained a significant Somali population in recent years. In the novel, the teenage character Zach throws a pig's head into a storefront mosque during Ramadan, for reasons even he doesn't understand. ![]()
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