Summary: It's not often that one reads a work of non-fiction that is both intellectually brilliant and as gripping as a thriller. This is Hirsi Ali's autobiography, and it succinctly covers a spectacularly broad sweep of topics as it follows her life path from her birth in Somalia to her emigration to the US as a celebrity hunted by Islamic fundamentalists: the oral traditions and clan structure of Somalis; the relationship between Somali culture and Islam; female genital mutilation; the hierarchies of inter-African racism; the Muslim Brotherhood; the Somali civil war; the political culture of the Netherlands; the murder of Theo van Gogh; and much more. Hirsi Ali has been accused by various wishy-washy liberals of being an `enlightenment fundamentalist', but there is nothing judgemental or hectoring about her writing; she explains even horrific events matter-of-factly, allowing the reader to draw their own conclusion from facts that speak for themselves. She writes with great human sympathy about friends and relatives whose flaws might seem to make them unworthy of it, from the traditionalist grandmother who had her genitally mutilated and the mother who beat her mercilessly to the Dutch minister who tried to revoke her citizenship. The characters in her life story are all too human.

Hirsi Ali's self-declared mission is to fight the oppression of women in Islamic societies. She has often been accused of attributing to Islam abuses, such as genital mutilation, that are local cultural practices not sanctioned by the Koran. But this criticism is unfounded; as she makes clear early on, her point is that the authority of Islam, as it is interpreted in traditional societies, is used to sanction such abuses. And as she points out, the Koran really does appear to sanction other abuses against women, such as wife-beating (The Koran 4:34). Hirsi Ali is perhaps a bit sweeping in her condemnation of Islam; I'd question her suggestion that Osama bin Laden's interpretation of the Koran is necessarily the accurate one (holy texts are open to multiple interpretations, after all). Or her implication that Islam is inherently more problematic than Christianity or Judaism (there are some pretty politically incorrect passages in the Old Testament as well). But she makes a refreshing change from the dissembling of guilt-ridden liberals terrified of sounding `racist'. Democratic Muslims should welcome the debate, while fundamentalist Muslims deserve to be offended as much as possible.

Whether you agree with everything she says or not, it's difficult not to feel a sense of utter exaltation as this woman from a traditional background drags herself up, shakes off her own prejudices, takes on the brutes of primitivism and fundamentalism - and triumphs. It's an inspiring read with a truly nail-biting finish.