Born into the Zaghawa tribe in the Sudanese desert, Halima Bashir received a good education away from her rural surroundings (thanks to her doting,...
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Jul 07, 2009
William
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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 insidu
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Oct 09, 2008
Ksab
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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
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Jul 15, 2008
Meghan
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Feb 21, 2009
Emily
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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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Aug 07, 2011
Debbie
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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 Muslim
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Dec 29, 2009
Literary Feline
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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 no
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Apr 09, 2009
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.
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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.
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Dec 05, 2010
Petra X
rated it:
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 More...
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 More...
Jan 11, 2009
Ann
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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
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Jan 06, 2009
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 More...
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 More...
May 14, 2009
Hope
rated it:
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 als More...
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 als More...
Jul 03, 2010
Nykki
rated it:
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 l More...
"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 l More...
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Aug 01, 2011
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 tha
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Jan 09, 2009
Theresa
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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
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Dec 11, 2008
Dana
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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 fro
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May 26, 2011
Kerry
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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...
How many More...
Aug 02, 2011
Jo
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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
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Jul 05, 2009
Cathy
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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 More...
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 More...
Sep 29, 2009
Beth
rated it:
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,
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Jul 07, 2010
Jennifer
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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
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Oct 28, 2011
Anna
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Tears of the Desert is the memoir of Halima Bashir, a young woman who witnessed many atrocities in her homeland of Darfur and was courageous enough to speak out. Halima had an ordinary childhood as a member of the Zaghawa tribe. Life was carefree for the most part, doing chores and playing with other children in the village. Her father was the wealthiest man in the village (not rich by our standards, however), so Halima and her family enjoyed more comforts than the other village residents, inclu
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Sep 22, 2008
Kathy (Bermudaonion)
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Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur by Halima Bashir is a very emotional and riveting book. I found this book very painful to read at times, yet I couldn’t put it down, even though I was sobbing at some points. I was lucky enough to receive this Random House publication from the Library Thing Early Reviewer Program.
It seemed that Halima Bashir was born lucky. She is from Darfur, a region of Sudan, and a member of the Zaghawa tribe, and was born into a family that w More...
It seemed that Halima Bashir was born lucky. She is from Darfur, a region of Sudan, and a member of the Zaghawa tribe, and was born into a family that w More...
Dec 08, 2008
Marcy
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This book is a memoir of a brave and powerful child, a young adult, and an adult named Halima Bashir. She is highly educated and studied hard to become a medical doctor thanks to the generosity and foresight of her beloved father who lived in the rural regions of Sudan with Halima's family. Halima lived through the genocide of Darfur. She secretly tried to cure soldiers, her own people, from the attacks of the Janjaweed Arab militias. She was the doctor in a small village north of Sudan when
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Jul 26, 2011
Kathleen
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This is a moving account of a woman [one of only a few] who received an education in a country that does not normally educate women and her terrible story of surviving a holocaust in her own home then her escape to a country that much as it took in refugees it is almost another survival story in that country.Her courage in speaking out is a testament to why she has been able to survive and in some ways an account of neglect from countries that do not have to deal with genocide in our midst so we
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Dec 26, 2008
Jean
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This story was an amazing count of a brave child. It's so hard to believe this goes on while we are walking around free. Yet, in her early years and the family was together, she was happy. She didn't have microwaves or washing machines or shopping malls. She had family and friends in their village. Her family had a car because her family had some money. Then other came in thinking they were superior. We have all seen this in a smaller scale growing up and even today. I'm glad I read this bo
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Feb 07, 2009
This is the story of a survivor of the government of Sudan's policy of genocide against the black Sudanese in Darfur. The government attacks with weapons bought from China and paid for with oil sold to China. The United Nations is powerless because of the influence of China. Over 400,00 people have died and 2.5 million suffer in refugee camps.
Here 's Nicholas Kristof's article about the book in the New York Times. More...
Here 's Nicholas Kristof's article about the book in the New York Times. More...
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Sep 19, 2011
Asma
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this book takes the reader inside strange cultures of some clans in sudan. halima was strong woman to stand against and fight some rituals such as girls circumsision and scaring children's faces when reaching certain age. these people who are living in such a world deserve asylums to be saved from such a horrible life.
i could not believe there are still people in the world who hurt themselves believing it is part of culture.
i could not believe there are still people in the world who hurt themselves believing it is part of culture.
Aug 09, 2009
Brandie
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This book is one I will remember forever. Such an amazing, yet heart-wrenching story. There were times I laughed and could feel the joy and love as she spoke of her childhood and family, but there were times I felt despair for what she went through, and cried long after I put the book down. Definitely one everyone should read, we shouldn't stay ignorant to this war any longer. I hope and pray that Dr. Halima finds the rest of her family.
Mar 11, 2011
Mary
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A beatifully written story that shows the highlights of a county most of us dream of visiting. It also takes you on a terrible turn of all the horrific injustices and inhuman actions that began and are still currently taking place. The story takes you on the journey of a young girl with dreams, to a couragous, well educated woman's desire for safety and justice.
May 22, 2009
Amanda
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An insightful yet tragic memoir of a young woman from Darfur. The first half of the book discusses her childhood and education - ultimately she earns her medical degree. The second half of the memoir discusses the war and horrible events that have occurred recently. Difficult to read but impressive to see how the author has persevered.
