Author Fartumo Kusow joins the Spotlight this week to chat about her latest book
Author Name: Fartumo Kusow
Book Title: Winter of My Spring
Book Genre: Literary fiction
Release Date: March 31, 2026
Welcome Fartumo! Please tells us about Winter of My Spring.
Like winter freezing the land, violence halts the girls’ growth in Winter of My Spring. And yet, resilience rises like spring, thawing what was buried and allowing life to return.
What sparked the idea for this book?
The idea came after watching the news about the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls by Boko Haram. Like the rest of the world, I watched in horror. From Michelle Obama to Angelina Jolie, Hillary Clinton, Malala Yousafzai, and many others, people joined the rallying cry under the #BringBackOurGirls banner. It was remarkable to see global solidarity. But as powerful as the campaign was, I noticed something missing: the girls’ voices—their thoughts, their fears, their futures. I asked myself, If these girls could speak, what would they say? That question became the seed for this novel. I wanted to give voice to the real victims, to imagine their inner lives with care and truth.
How long did it take for you to write the book? Did you do any research?
It took me over five years to research and write this book before I was even able to share it with anyone outside my writing critique group.
What drew you to writing historical fiction?
I write historical fiction because it allows me to tell untold stories, stories that bring hidden or overlooked events to life. Through this genre, I can create narratives that feel real to readers, whether they’re based on true events or could have realistically happened.
What’s your favorite part about writing/being an author? What do you find challenging?
My favorite part of being an author is writing to make sense of the world and to confront the injustices I see around me. Writing is my form of activism, a quiet but deliberate mission where I play a small part in naming harm, honoring truth, and working toward justice. One of the hardest parts is bearing the weight of telling stories woven with pain and trauma.
If you were speaking to someone who hasn’t read your writing before, why should they want to read Winter of My Spring?
Someone who has not read my work should read Winter of My Spring to understand what happens when society holds victims responsible for the harm done to them. The book challenges the belief that silence protects cultural norms and instead reveals how silence allows injustice and perpetrators to thrive.
Fans of which authors or books might gravitate toward your book?
Winter of My Spring is for readers of Call Her Freedom, by Tara Dorabji and North of Dawn by Nuruddin Farah.
What do you hope readers will take away from this story?
Through Rada, Mika, and Sara, I am hoping the readers will bear witness to how women often carry the weight of social disintegration. In the collapse of Somalia’s social, economic, and political infrastructure following the 1991 civil war, Somali women were left to shoulder the burden, often without protection. Their experience reflects a global pattern: where there is war, natural disaster, or economic collapse, women are disproportionately affected.
What about the writing/editing/publishing process has been the most surprising to you so far?
The most surprising aspect of writing, editing, and publishing is how long it takes to get a book from the inception of the story idea to the point when it reaches the hands of the reader. The number of drafts to write, edit, and rewrite is astounding.
Any words of wisdom you give your pre-published writer self (or to a new writer)?
Don’t wait for permission to tell your story. Trust your story but also be open to feedback because revision is where the real writing happens.
What are your interests outside of writing and reading?
Outside writing I am a storyteller, a podcaster, and founder of Sahra Bulle Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation that raises awareness against violence against women and girls.
Are you working on a new project? Please tell us about it.
Yes, I am currently working on a new Young Adult novel titled Irrational Numbers. The story follows a seventeen-year-old math genius who is trying to reconcile the gap between the working-class immigrant community he comes from and the wealth and privilege of the private school he attends. As he moves between these two worlds, the novel explores identity, belonging, class, and what it means to be exceptional in a system that was not built for you.
What was the last book you read? What did you think of it?
The last book I read was The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Through the main character, Hiram Walker, and his power of conduction, I was transported between past and present, guided by memory as a force for connection, survival, and liberation. The novel powerfully shows how memory can move us through time and hold what history tries to erase.
Where can readers find you?
The readers can find me here.
Thank you, Fartumo! Winter of My Spring is out NOW.
Winter of My Spring
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.
Author Bio:
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.