US President Barack Obama’s half-brother Mark Ndesandjo has released his first novel, Nairobi to Shenzhen , which is about a man who is forced to confront his early experiences in Kenya and the United States after arriving in China in the wake of the September 11 attacks. At the launch in Southern China, where he has lived for seven years, Ndesandjo told of how his father had abused his mother. AFP reports that Ndesanjo told the press conference:

“My father beat me. He beat my mother. You just do not do that. I remember in my house, I would hear the screams. I would hear my mum’s pain. As a child, I could not protect he.  I could not remember any good things about my father. My skin had turned hard emotionally for so many years.”

Ndesanjo does not use the Obama name and has remained out of the spotlight in the Southern Chinese city of Shenzhen where he runs a business consultancy. He plans to publish his second book, an autobiography, in the next few months.

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