Open Sesame

Kaha Mohamed Aden’s collection of short stories, Fra-intendimenti, was published in 2010 by
Nottetempo. As Alessandra Marino points out, this title “introduces the central theme of the
precariousness of intercultural communication as a border practice. The deconstruction of the Italian
word fraintendimenti, literally meaning ‘misunderstandings’, refers both to the migrants’ condition of
living in-between (fra) languages and discourses (intendimenti), and to the risk of failure that is
embedded in the exercise of cultural negotiation” (Rev. of Fra-intendimenti by Kaha Mohamed Aden,
Anglistica, 15. 1, 2011: 139).