Helpful Score: 2
This is the powerful, important, and disturbing story of a med student who escapes the genocide in Burundi/Rwanda, arriving in New York City with $200 and fluency in French rather than English. Kidder is a wonderful writer, but the only way I could keep reading the horrific parts was knowing that Deo's life does improve. Kidder does a good job of summarizing and explaining the African conflicts in an evenhanded way, and I wish we got to know more of Deo's continuing story. Is he back in med school now?
Helpful Score: 1
Excellent! This is the 2nd Tracy kidder book I've read and I'm finding him to be wonderful writer. He has a way of making non-fiction read like a good novel. difficult subject matter,not for the faint of heart, but highly recommended just the same.
Helpful Score: 1
An inspiring and true story of survival and achievement.
Deo, once a medical student in Africa, manages to escape the genocide in Burundi
(adjacent to Rwanda) with a little help and a lot of luck. He immigrates to NYCity with only $200 in his pocket, no job, an inability to speak English as well as frequent flashbacks to his violent past.
Deo starts life in America by sleeping in Central Park and relies on the kindness of strangers for help. The former medical student gets a job as a delivery boy and
learns English by spending his spare time in bookstores. He advanced to the point where he is admitted into medical school in the U.S.
Deo eventually returns to Africa in order to build a medical clinic and heal his own mind.
I highly recommend this book as well as Tracy Kidder's earlier works of nonfiction,
especially 'Mountains Beyond Mountains' which you may want to read prior to 'Strength in What Remains' as the books are somewhat related.
Deo, once a medical student in Africa, manages to escape the genocide in Burundi
(adjacent to Rwanda) with a little help and a lot of luck. He immigrates to NYCity with only $200 in his pocket, no job, an inability to speak English as well as frequent flashbacks to his violent past.
Deo starts life in America by sleeping in Central Park and relies on the kindness of strangers for help. The former medical student gets a job as a delivery boy and
learns English by spending his spare time in bookstores. He advanced to the point where he is admitted into medical school in the U.S.
Deo eventually returns to Africa in order to build a medical clinic and heal his own mind.
I highly recommend this book as well as Tracy Kidder's earlier works of nonfiction,
especially 'Mountains Beyond Mountains' which you may want to read prior to 'Strength in What Remains' as the books are somewhat related.
Helpful Score: 1
Amazing book. Certain parts are haunting.
