Guangzhou, China (CNN) -- In a new book, the half brother of President Obama claims the father they shared was often drunk and physically abusive. "My father beat me," Mark Obama Ndesandjo told reporters in China, where he lives. "He beat my mother. You just do not do that. I shut these thoughts in the back of my mind for many years." Ndesandjo, who took the last name of the man his mother remarried, has dodged the media in the year since his half brother was elected U.S. president. However, he spoke out Wednesday regarding his semi-autobiographical book, "Nairobi to Shenzhen."
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Mark Obama Ndesandjo is President Obama's half brother
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In a new book, Ndesandjo says their father was abusive
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"My father beat me," he tells reporters in China
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President has said in earlier book that his father was an alcoholic
An engineer by trade, Ndesandjo moved to Shenzhen, @placeholder, after losing his job in the United States seven years ago.