Daoud, a man born into the Zaghawa tribe of Darfur, has a story to tell. It is such an important story that he has walked with death as his companion, over and over again, to be able to tell it.
"I am dead, I am dead, this is how I died, it is not so bad, I was thinking, afraid to look down at my body because too many bullets were flying around for me still to be okay." (Page 56)
I have no story to tell here, only to convey to you if I can, why reading Daoud's story may be the most important thing you can do today, or this year. You may ask yourself, as I did, how could anyone possibly live with imminent death, and scenes of death around them. Hari gives a hint of it:
"The gun muzzle was hot against my temple. Had he fired it recently, or was it just hot from the sun? I decided that if these were about to be my last thoughts, I should try some better ones instead. So I though about my family and how I loved them..." (Page 8)
Daoud has an exceptional gift for showing the reader his world as though they were walking in his shoes. His simple words struck so deeply into my heart, that I could only travel with him a few pages at a time. He committed himself to fight for the lives of his people with words at a time when his peers were trading their possessions for guns and joining a militia.
Daoud explains his motivation to keep on working to show the world what is happening in Darfur in the introduction to his book:
"If the world allows the people of Darfur to be removed forever from their land and their way of life, then genocide will happen elsewhere because it will be seen as something that works. It must not be allowed to work." (Page x)
Let Daoud explain in his own words why the atrocities in Darfur matter to you. He cannot fulfill his mission without you, his reader. Once I read The Translator, A Tribesman's Memoir, I saw that it is not happening "to them" "over there". It is happening here, to us.
We are all Zaghawa now.
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(4 of 6 readers found this comment helpful)
The day before Christmas, a package arrived from The Random House Publishing Group: an Advance Reader's Edition of Mary Doria Russell's new novel - Dreamers of the Day.
At 255 pages, it was the perfect length to fit in between preparations and celebrations. (But I'm a speed reader.) I cruised the story as slowly as possible, savoring the characters and the setting. What do you get when you put Rosie the Dachshund, Karl the German spy, T. E. Lawrence and an Ohio schoolteacher in Cairo, Egypt? Why, an enchanting novel, full of explorations and discoveries - of foreign places, of famous people, even of the self.
There is so much I want to tell you about Dreamers of the Day, but I won't diminish the charm you will find in discovering them for yourself. My only complaint at the end of this book was that it was over too soon. Perhaps that is also good - an author, like a party hostess, wants to always stop while people are still asking for more.
Already I have revisited the story and its protagonist, Agnes Shanklin, in my mind, considering certain scenes, turning them this way and that in the light of retrospection, to see if they maintain their purity. Yes, Russell's writing shines with originality. Although her work and her acknowledgments show her to be a careful craftsman of history, she weaves real events and famous people into her story with a light touch, producing a fresh perspective.
The ending was a total surprise, yet fit the rest of the narrative perfectly. This is a book I will read more than once. Very highly recommended.
Mary Doria Russell also wrote A Thread of Grace, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
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(2 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
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The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari
April Dauenhauer, February 23, 2008
Daoud, a man born into the Zaghawa tribe of Darfur, has a story to tell. It is such an important story that he has walked with death as his companion, over and over again, to be able to tell it."I am dead, I am dead, this is how I died, it is not so bad, I was thinking, afraid to look down at my body because too many bullets were flying around for me still to be okay." (Page 56)
I have no story to tell here, only to convey to you if I can, why reading Daoud's story may be the most important thing you can do today, or this year. You may ask yourself, as I did, how could anyone possibly live with imminent death, and scenes of death around them. Hari gives a hint of it:
"The gun muzzle was hot against my temple. Had he fired it recently, or was it just hot from the sun? I decided that if these were about to be my last thoughts, I should try some better ones instead. So I though about my family and how I loved them..." (Page 8)
Daoud has an exceptional gift for showing the reader his world as though they were walking in his shoes. His simple words struck so deeply into my heart, that I could only travel with him a few pages at a time. He committed himself to fight for the lives of his people with words at a time when his peers were trading their possessions for guns and joining a militia.
Daoud explains his motivation to keep on working to show the world what is happening in Darfur in the introduction to his book:
"If the world allows the people of Darfur to be removed forever from their land and their way of life, then genocide will happen elsewhere because it will be seen as something that works. It must not be allowed to work." (Page x)
Let Daoud explain in his own words why the atrocities in Darfur matter to you. He cannot fulfill his mission without you, his reader. Once I read The Translator, A Tribesman's Memoir, I saw that it is not happening "to them" "over there". It is happening here, to us.
We are all Zaghawa now.
(4 of 6 readers found this comment helpful)
Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell
April Dauenhauer, February 23, 2008
The day before Christmas, a package arrived from The Random House Publishing Group: an Advance Reader's Edition of Mary Doria Russell's new novel - Dreamers of the Day.At 255 pages, it was the perfect length to fit in between preparations and celebrations. (But I'm a speed reader.) I cruised the story as slowly as possible, savoring the characters and the setting. What do you get when you put Rosie the Dachshund, Karl the German spy, T. E. Lawrence and an Ohio schoolteacher in Cairo, Egypt? Why, an enchanting novel, full of explorations and discoveries - of foreign places, of famous people, even of the self.
There is so much I want to tell you about Dreamers of the Day, but I won't diminish the charm you will find in discovering them for yourself. My only complaint at the end of this book was that it was over too soon. Perhaps that is also good - an author, like a party hostess, wants to always stop while people are still asking for more.
Already I have revisited the story and its protagonist, Agnes Shanklin, in my mind, considering certain scenes, turning them this way and that in the light of retrospection, to see if they maintain their purity. Yes, Russell's writing shines with originality. Although her work and her acknowledgments show her to be a careful craftsman of history, she weaves real events and famous people into her story with a light touch, producing a fresh perspective.
The ending was a total surprise, yet fit the rest of the narrative perfectly. This is a book I will read more than once. Very highly recommended.
Mary Doria Russell also wrote A Thread of Grace, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
(2 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)