Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur

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Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur

4.28 of 5 stars 4.28 · rating details · 1,000 ratings · 185 reviews

Like the single white eyelash that graces her row of dark lashes -- seen by her people as a mark of good fortune -- Halima Bashir's story stands out. Tears of the Desert is the first memoir ever written by a woman caught up in the war in Darfur. It is a survivor's tale of a conflicted country, a resilient people, and the uncompromising spirit of a young woman who refused t...more

Hardcover, 316 pages

Published September 9th 2008 by One World/Ballantine (first published January 1st 2008)

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Jul 07, 2009 William rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: must-read-5-stars

If ever there was a book that fit the description "life changing" than this is that book. Dr. Bashir writes elegantly about her idealic (almost too fantasticly perfect) youth and upbringing in the as yet war torn southern Sudan. Her peaceful, intelligent and wealthy father. Her quiet and nurturing mother and her traditional and fierce, warrior of a grandmother all live in harmony with nature and each other. Then like a sudden thunderbolt her peace is shattered not by war but the insiduous tradit...more

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jo Why humans continue to pat themselves on the back for their civilization while allowing unbridled genocide and racism... free riegn I'll never underst...more
Jul 07, 2009 09:24am

William "as for those practices, i think it would be best if societies were allowed to figure out their way out of them alone, instead of at the point of a we...more
Jul 07, 2009 09:58am

Qiana Excellent review, Bill. If this book had that much of a profound impact on you, then I will definitely add it to my list.
Jul 08, 2009 05:34am

Oct 09, 2008 Ksab rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow-Another story of our AFrican brothers and sisters killing each other!1 This was a poignant first person account of Bashir's middle class-albeit village(her Dad had houses in the nearby town-hundreds of livestock,a Landrover-the first TV in the village)idealistic-family oriented upbring-A feisty young lady bestowed with a lucky charm of a white eyelash-Halima was the first girl in her village to attend elementary school and highschool in the city. This book showed that many Muslim societies i...more

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Jul 15, 2008 Meghan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, memoir, for-review, arc

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I have a review due tomorrow morning and I'm stuck because I know that there is nothing that I can say that will do this memoir justice. I finished this three days ago and have been walking around with this story resonating in my soul like a bell tone that refuses to fade.

The book is beautifully written, when Bashir tells of her life in Sudan before the genocide began you can not only see Africa, but hear and smell it as well. The Darfur of Bashir's childhood, while not easy by our standards,...more

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Feb 21, 2009 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009-read, memoir, non-fiction

A beautifully done memoir about an African girl from a small village in Sundan, who becomes a medical doctor and if forced to flee during genocide. I'll admit, I didn't know a lot about the conflict in Sudan prior to reading this book, but it made me want to learn more. It's amazing how awful humans are to one another. But, the escape was only a small piece of Bashir's life, and a small piece of this wonderful story.

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Apr 21, 2013 Louise rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, africa, sudan

Halima Bashir is one of millions caught up in this tragedy. If not for the combination of her personal skills (academic excellence, fortitude, stamina) and her very supportive father this story would never have been told.

Halima's girlhood is a stunning narrative, and worth a read in and of itself. This unique glimpse into village life has well defined characters and reflects a strong but changing culture. There is a stubborn grandmother who wants the old ways but accepts the radio. The successfu...more Halima Bashir is one of millions caught up in this tragedy. If not for the combination of her personal skills (academic excellence, fortitude, stamina) and her very supportive father this story would never have been told.

Halima's girlhood is a stunning narrative, and worth a read in and of itself. This unique glimpse into village life has well defined characters and reflects a strong but changing culture. There is a stubborn grandmother who wants the old ways but accepts the radio. The successful father, ahead of his time, and supportive of Halima as he may be, does not protect her from "cutting". The dynamics of the family upon the return of their scholar/doctor are interesting as is the distance now placed between Halima and neighbors/patients, potential suitors and childhood friends.

There is a good portrait of the educational experience in the third world. Students are beaten at the whim of those in control. Tuition paying families accept their daughters will clean the latrines/toilets. In medical school, students catch their own frogs for dissection.

These difficult experiences pale when the war reaches this family. The upside down world has only loss and danger. There is no heroic rescue on the horizon, only the family "savings" that comes to Halima due to all the unique characteristics of her father, grandmother and mother. Circumstances and pluck bring Halima to England and with the help of caring refugee advocates is able to communicate the problem to the world.

I hadn't understood the situation in Sudan until this book. There is little depth in what is presented in the US press. I had read The "Translator: A Memoir" which focuses on the violence through a number of narrow escapes and the guile of its writer. "Tears" gives a much richer portrait individuals and what is being destroyed.

I do not think, as stated in the epilogue, that China's reliance on Sudan for oil necessarily means there has to be genocide. While my knowledge of this is shallow, the situation seems to be the product of racism fueled by petrodollars.

Credit is due to Halima Bashir for telling her story and also to Damien Lewis of the BBC who made this a page turner.
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Aug 07, 2011 Debbie Blane rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A difficult book to read in terms of content, I read it in one day (or night) so it is a fast read. The author did a really good job of setting up the context, explaining how peaceful her life and world were before the regime in Khartoum began the process of exterminating the black Africans in Darfur. At a point in the book she realized that the war against her people had to do with their being black Africans and not Arabs, President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum was a Muslim killing other Muslims....more

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Dec 29, 2009 Literary Feline rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am not really sure what draws me to books like this. The Holocaust has long been a part of history that has frightened and moved me. It is a time in the world’s history that is so painful, not to mention shameful. And not just for those who were directly involved. It is a blight on all our records. Stories about the Holocaust are told and re-told, the hope is that the same mistakes won’t be repeated. But they are. Again and again. The Holocaust was not the first instance of genocide nor was it...more I am not really sure what draws me to books like this. The Holocaust has long been a part of history that has frightened and moved me. It is a time in the world’s history that is so painful, not to mention shameful. And not just for those who were directly involved. It is a blight on all our records. Stories about the Holocaust are told and re-told, the hope is that the same mistakes won’t be repeated. But they are. Again and again. The Holocaust was not the first instance of genocide nor was it the last. While the murder and rape of hundreds of thousands of black Africans in Darfur has not been labeled as genocide by the United Nations, it is still an atrocity that cannot be justified.

In the winter of 2003, the Sudan Liberation Army and Justice and Equality Movement acted out against the injustice they saw taking place in their country. Black Africans were being oppressed and treated like second class citizens by the government. The government retaliated with more violence, taking it to an entirely different level. Not only were the soldiers in the rebellion targeted, but the innocent as well. Children and women are being raped, entire villages wiped out, and survivors are forced to leave the country or hide or risk certain death. The Sudan government controls the media within the country and has continuously tried to control the truth going out.

Halima Bashir is just one person who was caught up in the conflict. Her memoir, Tears of the Desert, is her attempt at giving voice to the hundreds of thousands of people who have been murdered and displaced by the Darfur conflict.

Darfur. I know to you this must be a word soaked in suffering and blood. A name that conjures up terrible images of a dark horror and an evil without end. Pain and cruelty on a magnitude inconceivable in most of the civilized world. But to me Darfur means something quite different. It was and is that irreplaceable, unfathomable joy that is home. [pg 4:]

I thought that Halima Bashir did an excellent job of painting a more complete picture of Darfur for someone like me, who has never traveled to Sudan or experienced a life like the one she has lived. The love for her country, her village and her family came through—I could not help but love them too.
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Apr 09, 2009 Ms. Online added it

Shelves: 2008-fall-reviews

DARFUR TESTAMENT
Jennifer Leaning, M.D.

Review of Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur
By Halima Bashir with Damien Lewis
One World Ballantine Books

The people of Darfur have always had trouble being heard, given their remoteness, their dispersal and, even in refuge, their fear of reprisal. Despite the efforts of advocates in the U.S. and the U.K., their voices— particularly those of women—have been slipping even farther into the background.

But now we hear the voice of Dr. Halima Bashi...more DARFUR TESTAMENT
Jennifer Leaning, M.D.

Review of Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur
By Halima Bashir with Damien Lewis
One World Ballantine Books

The people of Darfur have always had trouble being heard, given their remoteness, their dispersal and, even in refuge, their fear of reprisal. Despite the efforts of advocates in the U.S. and the U.K., their voices— particularly those of women—have been slipping even farther into the background.

But now we hear the voice of Dr. Halima Bashir, who draws us into the world from which she came and to which she can never return. Born into the Zaghawa, one of the three main black African tribes of Darfur, she passed her early years in relative tranquillity, protected by a loving family and enveloped in tribal and village traditions of South Darfur. Aside from the pain and sense of betrayal caused by her circumcision, which she describes in unflinching detail, Bashir’s childhood provided everything she would need to endure the years that followed. Her wise and attentive father supported her education, and her own grit and stamina propelled her through the government hierarchy of schools and universities to graduation as a medical doctor from the University of Khartoum.

The flames of war began to flicker at the edges of her homeland, and before she could be fully trained, she was forced back to North Darfur, where her heroic efforts to salvage 40 schoolgirls and a teacher after their gang-rape by the janjaweed proved costly. Captured by the local police and janjaweed, she was punished with beatings and rape for three days and left bleeding and maimed.

She was helped by friends to her home village, only to see it attacked by janjaweed, her adored father killed, her family scattered. To this day she has no word of their fate. She fought her way back to sanity and safety through a terrifying underground escape, ultimately securing asylum in the U.K. with the help of England’s Aegis Trust, an antigenocide organization.

It is from this haven that Bashir traces the pernicious government actions that stoked long-standing socioeconomic tensions into sweeping genocidal attacks. With a physician’s measure, she describes how she cared for war wounded and survived vicious assault. With the voice of a stalwart and honest survivor, she spares little in her own defense and acknowledges with terse yet warm specifics those who sustained her on her path. Read her book to learn about the richly interwoven cultures and livelihoods that once constituted Darfur and to understand how atrocities begin and how, when unchecked, they can become ethnic cleansing.

---
JENNIFER LEANING, M.D., is professor of the Practice of International Health in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard University.
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Dec 05, 2010 Petra X rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: travel-adventure, popculture-anthropology

If you are a pc sort of person, this book is going to piss you off no end.

No nation or religious group is allowed to be blamed for anything its members might do unless the national or religious designation is qualified with the words, "fundamentalist", "extremist" or similar, so that we all may know that the other nationals or co-religionists are not themselves terrorists and do not support such actions). This applies even when we know they do by their attendance at rallies, their votes for pol...more If you are a pc sort of person, this book is going to piss you off no end.

No nation or religious group is allowed to be blamed for anything its members might do unless the national or religious designation is qualified with the words, "fundamentalist", "extremist" or similar, so that we all may know that the other nationals or co-religionists are not themselves terrorists and do not support such actions). This applies even when we know they do by their attendance at rallies, their votes for politicians who do support terrorism and their vast donations to 'the cause' whatever that might be. No, we want to be seen as fair, even if that will cause us to be mocked, that attitude exploited and will ultimately be to our own detriment.

An example of a pc person: someone who agrees that there must be no racial-profiling allowed in security screenings at airports. That the security companies do not search people with Muslim names and Middle-Eastern or African appearance more than anyone else despite the fact that people with, for instance, Swedish names and of Nordic appearance do not actually figure in the present statistics of those who do blow up planes (and take credit for it). If you agree with this policy, then this book will press all your buttons.

Everyone in the book is a Muslim. It's the Arab Government and its supporters versus the Black Africans who are the victims. There are other victims in Sudan and Chad, especially in Darfur, who are Christians or Animists who suffer equally but they do not figure in Tears in the Desert. It does prove however that this civil war, this policy of enslavement and removal from ancestral lands is an entirely racially-based aggression.

For those who think that pc-doublespeak does us any favours at all, a rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but calling shit, 'excreta', 'night soil', 'waste products' or even 'faeces' might take the offence away of the unacceptable word SHIT, but it doesn't stop it stinking or - uncontained - spreading disease. And Halima Bashir has no hesitation in saying it is the Arabs who are ordering the rape of children, the burning of babies, the destruction of villages of the Black Africans, purely because they are Africans and in possession of the land and livestock the Arabs want.

Financing this serious attempt at genocide are the Chinese. They are quite impartial ignorers of human rights at home and abroad, all they want to do is buy the oil and sell weapons and this gives the Arab government of Sudan the ability to ignore international and UN censure. The British Government do support the UN on this in theory, but the book is very scathing about their policy towards Black Sudanese asylum seekers (see Mende Nazer's Slave for more on that).

The book doesn't deserve five-stars for writing, it does rather go on in parts about the idyllic childhood existence of pastoral life, but this is common to almost all the books on this subject - the aforementioned book, Slave, or the model Alek Wek's equally amazing autobiography as well as Francis Bok's "Escape from Slavery". What is does deserve 5 stars for is content. Its not an intellectual or political book but one of an educated woman (the author is a doctor) who has sadly, lived through the most terrible circumstances that could befall anyone, genital mutilations, gang rape, torture, murder, loss of her entire family and right until the end, no safe place of asylum.

Its a book worth reading, at times its too gripping to put down, its not at all heavy, but could never be described as 'enjoyable'. A book to learn from.(less)

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Aug 20, 2012 Penny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own-it

I love memoirs. I really love well written memoirs. The writing is way above par unlike some other memoirs that are simply endless pages of facts. Bashir's book is so engaging! She relays the life she lost so well that, up until all hell broke loose, you are envious of her humble beginnings. I really enjoyed discovering what life growing up in an African village was like and I truly grieved when that life was shattered in yet another African nation.

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Jan 11, 2009 Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars

I just finished this heart breaking story out of Darfur,Sudan, Africa. The author grew up in a tribal village in Africa, the daughter of a warm and wonderful father who, uncharacteristically desired to have his daughter get the best education he could afford. She describes the years of her carefree childhood among a loving extended family in the African bush and her eventual enrollment in a secondary school and then medical school in the city. Halima Bashir was a gifted student, earning some of...more

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Oct 10, 2012 Anna rated it 4 of 5 stars

One of those books that should inspire me to volunteer with the local refugees. This is a horrendous story of the life of a Darfuri survivor who's only desire is to become a doctor to help people in her village. Instead she is lied to, cheated, threatened, forcibly moved, beaten, raped, and hunted. It is an incredibly infuriating story that embarassingly brings hatred to my life. It would be a strong person indeed who could read this book and not be moved. After blowing the rest of the female st...more

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Jan 06, 2009 Kathleen Hagen added it

Shelves: 2008-audio-books, 2008-nonfiction

Tears of the Desert: Memoir of a Survivor from Darfur.
Halima Bashir, Damien Lewis.
Narrated by Rosalind Landers. Produced by Brilliance Audio, downloaded from audible.com.

Publisher’s note:
Halima Bashir was born into the Zaghawa tribe, whose customs have remained unchanged for centuries, in the remote western deserts of Sudan in the region
of South Darfur. Halima's father named his daughter after the traditional medicine woman of the village, and she grew up in a happy and close-knit childhood
env...more Tears of the Desert: Memoir of a Survivor from Darfur.
Halima Bashir, Damien Lewis.
Narrated by Rosalind Landers. Produced by Brilliance Audio, downloaded from audible.com.

Publisher’s note:
Halima Bashir was born into the Zaghawa tribe, whose customs have remained unchanged for centuries, in the remote western deserts of Sudan in the region
of South Darfur. Halima's father named his daughter after the traditional medicine woman of the village, and she grew up in a happy and close-knit childhood
environment. Her father became a wealthy man by his tribe's standards, so he could afford to send Halima to school and university. Halima went on to study
medicine, and at 24 she returned to her tribe and began practicing as their first ever qualified doctor.But shortly thereafter Janjaweed Arab militias
began savagely assaulting the Zaghawa, often with the backing of the Sudan military. At first, Halima tried not to get involved. But in January 2004 the
Janjaweed attacked her area, raping 42 schoolgirls and their teachers. Halima treated the traumatized rape victims, some of whom were as young as eight
years old, then spoke up about what she had witnessed in Sudanese newspaper and to the UN charities. But the secret police came for her and Halima was
interrogated and subjected to unspeakable torture and multiple rapes. She managed to escape into hiding in her home village, but Janjaweed raiders backed
by helicopter gunships attacked her home. Halima's father was killed, her village turned into a smoking ruin. She knew that she had to leave for good.
Taking what little money her mother could spare her, Halima set out on an epic journey to escape the hell of Darfur. With little ideaWith no idea where she was headed, having given all her earthly values to an agent to get her out of the country, , she ended up in England, where a long-lost childhood cousin was waiting to marry her. It took her much time to find him, as she was repeatedly denied asylum by the Home Office in England. Finally, she and her husband and child were able to become British citizens because she was instrumental in letting the public know about the holocaust inflicted on the women of Darfur. Now she is determined to share her story with the world
in hopes that her tale will help shed light on the hundreds of thousands of innocent and beautiful lives being snuffed out by what is quickly becoming
one of the most terrible genocides of the 21st century.

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May 14, 2009 Hope rated it 5 of 5 stars

Like many people, I have seen the reports about the genocide in Darfur. Unfortunately, Darfur is so far removed from us here in the U.S. that we tend to see it on the news and feel terrible about it, but then go on about our days and forget about it. The news in not capable of bringing the full reality of the horror to us, but this book does.

Halima Bashir opens the book by telling of her childhood and giving us a peek at village life. A life full of struggles and challenges, but also of joy and...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Njenva Heimi rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 03, 2010 Nykki rated it 5 of 5 stars

An honest depiction of one woman's life in Darfur - going from her happy (albeit rough) childhood, to the wariness of the coming war, to torture, abuse, and rape, to her escape and struggle for asylum in England.

"So they had come for my early. So what? The country was burning. Children were being gang raped. Evil stalked the land. Sooner or later all of us Zaghawa, Fur, Massalit - all of us black dogs and slaves - were going to suffer. You might be lucky and live. You might be luckless, and die....more

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Aug 01, 2011 Julie added it

This was one of the most important books that I have ever read. The first half of the book is almost like a love letter to her family, home and past. Halima paints a vibrant picture of the culture of her childhood village. She takes you on a journey as you see what a remarkable woman she is, and what she accomplished before war truly touched her. She brings you into the warmth of her cozy home before she reveals the dark side and pain of her experiences in Darfur. There were a few times that I h...more

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Jan 09, 2009 Theresa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Theresa by: The Week

So sad .... the author is a medical doctor who received her degree in Sudan just as the conflicts were getting bad. She tells of the good times in her village before the genocide began and her personal story of caring for victims of the conflict. Her personal narrative of female circumcision was excruciatingly painful to read - I can't imagine the pain experienced by the girls. But that pales with the stories of her own ordeal at the hands of the janjaweed, the Arab fighters who terrorized the v...more

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Apr 18, 2013 DA rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone desiring to develop a connection with Africa

So gripping that your gut will ache as one dire twist turns into an even worse one. This highly readable non-fiction account begins with a highly accessible vignette of a relatively simple, perhaps even privileged, childhood. But soon the personal account progresses into the brutal realities of Sudan's regime that pits the government-backed Arab militia against black Africans in Darfur. Two-thirds into the book, the horror is ratcheted up and becomes deeply personal. You'll feel an affinity towa...more

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May 10, 2012 Natalie rated it 4 of 5 stars

It reads like a good novel. Over half of it is her life before war and terror. Only the last 1/3 or so is really terror stricken. By then you are hooked and want to know she did okay. Definately a women's personal individual perspective on the conflict. Not an overview of the whole conflict. So it was a nice follow up to the other book I recently read The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari. He was a good overview, personal experience through staying in Darfur through the ho...more

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Feb 11, 2013 Dorothee Lang added it

“Tears of the Desert” is the autobiography of Halima Bashir who tells about her life in a village in the Darfur region of Sudan during the escalating conflict. the author was one of the few of her tribe who studied, and became a doctor to help people - not knowing during her studies how deseperate the situation would turn, and how many wounded people she would see.
After starting to read the book, I also looked for some background info on Sudan, and browsing pages, arrived at a video that is up...more

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Dec 11, 2008 Dana rated it 4 of 5 stars

Very well done. Hard to read, to know you can't do anything about it. As in other books about Africa and genocide, it seems that the UN is unable ( or unwilling ) to do anything about it. That goverments mean more than people. The author is a young woman, a medically trained doctor in Darfur, and has seen and been the victim of unspeakable things, but has been able to move on. She starts out from the time she was born, her close family life, education, medical experiences and her escape from her...more

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May 26, 2011 Kerry rated it 4 of 5 stars

Though well written, the content made this book a tough read. How is it possible that genocide can occur in this modern time? We knew it was happening as it happened -- not after the fact, and yet, the world still allowed it to happen. And just as Elie Wiesel described in Night about WWII, everyone thought that their village, their town wouldn't be affected. The war won't come this far. We won't be involved. And even with the threat looming, few left -- until it was too late.

How many more times...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Jo rated it 5 of 5 stars

Halima Bashir has bravely shared her personal experiences of the horrors of Darfur - starting with precious memories of a happy childhood in the desert village that was home to her loving family, she tells of her success at becoming the first medically trained doctor of her tribe, only to be brutally treated by the monstrous Sudanese 'government'... to think that these things are happening right now is shocking and after reading Halima's story I feel that the news stories that can pass us by hav...more

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Feb 12, 2012 Siobhan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I admit that books with words like "survival" and "Darfur" in their titles aren't the first thing I reach for when it comes to pleasure reading. I'm glad the library stock was on the thin side the day I found "Tears of the Desert," though. This is a compelling story, beautifully told. It evoked a foreign culture and place such that I felt like I had been there and that I knew Halima Bashir's family. When the nightmare of war descended on them, I felt both sympathy and outrage. And yet at the sam...more

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Mar 23, 2012 Mari Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Karen Sater

Recommended to Mari Anne by: Kim Schnasse

Wow! Amazing, horrifying and enlightening story of a woman who grew up in Darfur, studied to be a doctor, was raped and beaten for speaking out against the war, and then fled the country in fear of her life. This was a hard story to read (as all stories of genocide are) but it was well written and the narrative flows well. It is also written so that the reader learns a lot about the history of the conflict in Sudan, as well as the personal price that the Sudanese have had to pay. Fascinating and...more

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Jul 05, 2009 Cathy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: culture, women-s-issues, human-rights, memoir

A story that brings home OUR vital responsibility to help stop a genocide.

Halima begins her story with a beautifully evocative portrait of a bright, talented girl growing up in a close-knit family and a culturally rich village. She made me long deeply for a healthy rural Africa.

She continues to describe all the horrors that happened to her, neighbors, family and an entire region. Horrors that have not yet stopped, and that, as described in the epilogue, are powerfully supported politically and...more

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Sep 29, 2009 Beth Rear rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir

Halima Bashir has been called the Anne Frank of Darfur and this is absolutely the case. The puts a human face on someone who has lived through the crisis taking place in Darfur. Like Anne Frank, she chronicles her life prior to the conflict, and then life as the conflict begins to escalate - and climaxes with what we know is happening in Darfur today. This is an extremely well written book and I put it on the same level of importance as the Diary of Anne Frank. Unlike Nazi Germany, however, this...more

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Sep 09, 2012 Chrissie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, sudan, text-checked, 2012challenge, bio

I highly recommend this book to all those wishing to know more about the Darfur Conflict / Darfur Genocide that began in 2003. The Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) accuse the Sudanese government of oppressing non-Arab Sudanese, i.e. the black Africans of Sudan. When Britain left Sudan they left it in the hands of the Arabs. The guerrilla conflict is between the blacks and the Arabs of Sudan. The Arabs had been a nomadic people, the blacks were farmers. With the support of the Sudanese government,...more

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Jul 07, 2010 Jennifer Lewis rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sometimes I am truly shocked by my ignorance of the world around me. This breathtaking and yet horrific novel proves my point. It is the journey of a young woman (only 4 years older than me) through life in Darfur, Sudan. I was shocked to witness what befell this woman only a few years ago. The War in Darfur is genocide. I ignorantly and naively hoped the world had grown beyond genocide, but sadly I was mistaken. This book is heartbreaking but vividly shows the struggle happening in the world to...more

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