Mark Obama Ndesandjo is the author of the memoir Cultures: My Odyssey of Self-discovery, due to be released in 2014. It is a revealing and beautifully written memoir, in which Mark recounts his complex relationship with his older brother, President Barack Obama, including their first meeting in Kenya over twenty five years ago. The book also offers the author's inspiring personal story about identity and multiculturalism.
Nairobi to Shenzhen is a semi-autobiographical novel that precedes Cultures, and is also a compelling story of adventure across three cultures. The protagonist, upon arriving in China in the wake of 911 and the onset of a terrifying global war, is forced to confront his early experiences in Kenya and the United States as a result of his growing love for a beautiful Chinese woman and a young orphan. Parallels between his own upbringing and the potential family that lies before him lead to questions about his true identity, the complexities of his multi-racial family and the relationship he had known with his father.
‘The mixed-race son of a brilliant but troubled Kenyan academic and a white American
woman writes an emotionally wrenching book about his search for identity and self.”
- Keith Richburg, The Washington Post
“…contains 1.3 billion weighty thoughts, keen observations, flashes of insight and
moments of reflection…and the readers can share in all of them.”
- Cairns Media Magazine
“I found this book hard to put down. From a haphazard collection of thoughts and impressions of southern China, the story begins to hone in on people, observing their behavior and relationships, across vastly different cultures…brutally honest, we are left with the image of a character striving to improve himself and the world through better self-awareness.”
- Fritz Galt, Author of China Gate
