Written by Gulraiz Sharif

Publisher: Cappelen Damm
Pages: 176
Genre: Young Adult, Norwegian, Contemporary
Published: 2020-08-01
Original Language: Norwegian

Hør her'a! er en oppsiktsvekkende og frisk roman som sparker i alle retninger. En ny og sjelden stemme med mye på hjertet! Det er sommerferie og Mahmoud på 15 år ser for seg lange dager på benken utenfor blokka sammen med kompisen sin, enøyde Arif. Denne sommeren skal imidlertid bli annerledes, for familien får besøk av Onkel ji fra Pakistan og Mahmoud får i oppgave å vise onkelen rundt i Oslo. Onkel ji gjør store øyne i Norge, og så lurer han på hva det er med Ali, lillebroren til Mahmoud, som ikke oppfører seg slik gutter skal. I løpet av sommerferien skal Mahmoud bli stilt overfor store prøvelser både som bror og sønn i en pakistansk familie.

Read from 2020-11-29 to 2020-11-29
Read in Norwegian
Rating: 4.5/5
Review: Hør her’a! is one of those books that has been written about everywhere, and, being a sucker for hype, I had to pick it up. It was worth it.

Before starting, I was a little worried about the book seemingly being targeted toward the young-young adult market, and the start of the book didn’t make me any less worried. It was funny, yes, but with an infantility that became incredibly tiring after ten pages. Fortunately, the book soon morphed into a story that, while it was obviously aimed at someone younger than me, was still very enjoyable.

The main meat of the book is a touching story about finding out, and being comfortable with, who you are, trying to fit in, and unconditional familial love. Corny, yes, but done so well, and with so many original twists that the story never felt trite or boring.

As good as this book is, it’s obviously written for teenagers, and the expectations of it need to be set thereafter, but it’s a book that I think could be genuinely educational, in that it could serve as a prompt for discussions in classrooms or among friends, while simultaneously being entertaining without being finger-pointy. And different people, with different backgrounds, are likely to find different things in this book which will make them think, and might challenge them.

And despite being, lacking a better word, a “useful” book for teenagers, it was still a quick, enjoyable read for me (allegedly an adult). I get the hype around this book, and it’s well-deserved hype. I think, and hope, that this will make it onto the reading lists of many secondary schools in the years to come.