A Man Like You

Inspired by a real Somali terrorist event, A Man Like You is a conversation between a British hostage, Patrick North, and his Somali captor Abdi, set in a windowless concrete room in Somalia. Elizabeth, North’s wife provides a counter-point to the story, from the Norths’ house in Nairobi. A Man Like You illustrates the world views of two men who come from different circumstances and hold completely different philosophies, which they discuss over the course of North’s captivity of 102 days. They debate good and evil, power and control, who is a terrorist and who is not, and what is God, and in so doing they challenge our own deeply-held views. In a heroic struggle, Abdi and North rarely agree their basic humanity connects them. Can they come to realize they are more alike than they initially believe?

A Man Like You is inspired by the events of 21st September 2013, when Somali men from the terrorist group Al Shabaab opened fire on shoppers at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi….