‘US president’s father was abusive’

US President Barack Obama’s half-brother made a rare appearance on Wednesday in southern China, his home for seven years, to launch a novel he says draws on his painful childhood under an abusive father.

US President Barack Obama’s half-brother made a rare appearance on Wednesday in southern China, his home for seven years, to launch a novel he says draws on his painful childhood under an abusive father.

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After repeatedly shunning media attention, Ndesandjo’s first major public appearance to launch his debut novel comes less than two weeks before the US president travels to China for the first time.

While he said Nairobi to Shenzhen is a fictional account, it started off nearly 10 years ago as an autobiography and “reflects many experiences in my own life as a child brought up in Kenya” including a troubled relationship with his father.

“My mother used to say of my father, he’s a brilliant man but a social failure,” he said in Guangzhou.