Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The Translator Arrived Today



Random House sent me the hardcover copy of Daoud Hari's bestselling memoir on the Darfur Crisis The Translator and I loved the quality of the printing from cover to cover and I am reading it like I am making love to my sweetheart.

I love what Daoud Hari wrote in honor of the girls and women of Darfur.

I write this also for the women and girls of Darfur.
You have seen their faces wrapped in beautiful colors, and you know something of their suffering, but they are not who you think. Though they have been victimized, they are heroes more than victims. My aunt Joyar, for example, was a famous warrior who dressed like a man, fought camel thieves and Arab armies, wrestled men for sport--and always won. She refused to marry until she was in her forties.
I dedicate this to her and to the girls of my village who were faster and stronger than the boys at our rough childhood games. I dedicate this to my mother, who as a young woman kept a circle of attacking lions away from
our cattle and sheep in the bush for a long day, a long night and all the next morning, using only the power of her voice and the banging of two sticks. The power of her voice is something I know very well.




The beautiful prose of the author makes his memoir very exciting and thrilling to read, even though his memories are also true life chronicles of the atrocities of the ruthless Sudanese military and the heartless Janjaweed, the perpetrators of the horrors of the genocide in his homeland.

If you really care about the plight of the refugees who are still suffering and dying in Darfur, you should read this book.



Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Random House; 1 edition (March 18, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1400067448
ISBN-13: 978-1400067442
Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1 inches


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