This isn’t my review, but its a review from the Washington Post, part of which explains exactly why this book is excellent and I agree completely with the reviewers conclusion for what must be Hirsi Ali’s greatest gift:

“Even the bare facts of this unusual life would make fascinating reading. But this book is something more than an ordinary autobiography: In the tradition of Frederick Douglass or even John Stuart Mill, Infidel describes a unique intellectual journey, from the tribal customs of Hirsi Ali’s Somali childhood, through the harsh fundamentalism of Saudi Arabia and into the contemporary West. Along the way, Hirsi Ali displays what surely must be her greatest gift: the talent for recalling, describing and honestly analyzing the precise state of her feelings at each stage of that journey.”

Beginning with her childhood in her native Somalia, she candidly recounts her life and relationship with her family as they flee their war-torn country for Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and finally Kenya, where she spent many of her teenage years. Ayaan escaped an arranged marriage by fleeing to Holland, and eventually became a Dutch citizen and member of Parliament.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s autobiography is amazing and difficult to put down, and learning about Somali culture through her eyes was intensely fascinating.