Powell's Books - There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Africa's Children by Melissa Fay Greene

Don't Miss

More at Powell's

Powell's Q&A, Q&A | October 16, 2009

Powell's Q&A: Gail Collins

1 comment By Gail Collins

[My new book] starts in 1960 with a woman named Lois Rabinowitz, who was evicted from Manhattan traffic court for attempting to pay a parking ticket while wearing slacks. This was... Continue »

$19.59 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present
Gail Collins

$17.95

List price: ~~$24.95~~

Used Hardcover

Ships in 1 to 3 days

Qty	Store	Section
1	Burnside	Africa- General

More copies of this ISBN:

New, Hardcover, $25.95

This title in other formats:

There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Africa's Children

by Melissa Fay Greene

ISBN13: 9781596911161
ISBN10: 1596911166
Condition: Standard
Dustjacket: Standard
All Product Details

Only 1 left in stock at $17.95!

Review-a-Day (What is Review-a-Day?)

"If Greene did not have such lovely (and true) stories to share, the heartwrenching facts about Africa's AIDs orphans outlined in this book would be more than the average reader could bear....For anyone concerned about children's issues, anyone who has ever considered international adoption, or those of us who simply like to believe that one individual can shine a healing light in the dark, this is a story not to be missed." Marjorie Kehe, The Christian Science Monitor (read the entire CSM review)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

There Is No Me Without You is the story of Haregewoin Tefarra, a middle-aged Ethiopian woman of modest means whose home has become a refuge for hundreds of children orphaned by AIDS. It is a story as much about the power of the bond between children and parents as about the epidemic that every year leaves millions of children, mostly healthy themselves, without family. Originally a middle-class woman with a happy family life, Haregewoin fell into a deep depression after the death of her recently married daughter. But then a priest brought her two children, AIDS orphans, with nowhere to go. Unexpectedly, the children thrived, and Haregewoin found herself drawn back into daily life. As word got out, an endless stream of children began to arrive at her door, delivered by dying parents and other relatives who begged for her help, and, pushing against the limits of her home and bank account, she took more and more in. Today, Haregewoin runs a school, a daycare system, and a shelter for sick mothers. Without medication for her charges — some HIV-positive, some uninfected, and some infants trying to fight off the virus, but almost all of whom come to her terrified and malnourished — she forges on, caring for as many as she can handle. Increasingly, she also places them for adoption with families like that of journalist Melissa Fay Greene, who has two children adopted from Ethiopia. In Haregewoin Tefarra's story, Greene gives us an astonishing portrait of a woman fighting a continent-wide epidemic.

Review:

"Not unlike the AIDS pandemic itself, the odyssey of Haregewoin Teferra, who took in AIDS orphans, began in small stages and grew to irrevocably transform her life from that of 'a nice neighborhood lady' to a figure of fame, infamy and ultimate restoration. In telling her story, journalist Greene who had adopted two Ethiopian children before meeting Teferra, juggles political history, medical reportage and personal memoir. While succinctly interspersing a history of Ethiopia, lucidly tracing the history of AIDS from its early manifestation as 'slim disease' in the late 1970s to its appearance as a bizarrely aggressive [form] of Kaposi's sarcoma in the early 1980s, and following the complex path of medication (a super highway in the West, a trail in Africa), Greene rescues Teferra from undeserved oblivion as well as rescuing her from undeserved obloquy (false accusations of child selling). As with her previous books (Praying for Sheetrock; The Temple Bombing; Last Man Out), Greene takes a very close look at what appears to be the fringe of an important social event and illuminates the entire subject. Ethiopia is home to 'the second-highest concentration of AIDS orphans in the world'; even as some of the orphans find happy endings in American homes, Greene keeps the urgency of the greater crisis before us in this moving, impassioned narrative. (Sept.)" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"Melissa Fay Greene levels with her readers early in 'There Is No Me Without You,' telling us, 'I had thought I would write a hagiography, a chapter for "Lives of the Saints."' And much of that spirit of moral simplicity infuses her tale about a good-natured heroine, an Ethiopian woman named Haregewoin Teferra who chooses decency in the face of unfathomable horror. The result is a work that, while... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) seeking to speak broadly about the overwhelming problems faced by AIDS orphans in Africa, feels, in many places, like an unusually well-crafted UNICEF appeal.

But the life of Greene's heroine — and, as a result, Greene's story — takes a dark and fascinating turn at a point when the author appears to have been well into the reporting and writing of a 400-plus-page book. Teferra, the widow-turned-savior to Ethiopia's AIDS orphans, it turns out, has all-too-human failings. She is accused of becoming cold toward her children, mishandling money and, less plausibly, trafficking children and condoning sexual assault against her charges.

Until then, the arc of the narrative has a familiar, ready-for-Hollywood feel. (The film rights already have been sold to DreamWorks.) Teferra, a middle-aged, middle-class grandmother, loses her own adult daughter to a mysterious new disease, grieves terribly and then, at the verge of succumbing entirely, opens herself instead to a child orphaned by what came to be recognized as AIDS. Then another. Then dozens more, accepting poverty and social estrangement to help those afflicted by the same relentless plague that had claimed her daughter.

The characters, particularly the children, are strikingly well-drawn. And Greene — author of three other books, including her award-winning account of apartheid in McIntosh County, Ga., 'Praying for Sheetrock' — resists stocking an African story with Westerners. She pushes readers hard to leap chasms of race and culture to see Africans as real people with real emotions and, at times, real failings.

In her quest to illuminate the inner lives of characters, Greene sometimes goes too far, offering exquisitely detailed description of scenes she clearly did not witness. She also often tells us, in the third-person-omniscient tone, what her characters — even very small children — are thinking.

Greene's elegant and profoundly evocative writing is never better than when it results from directly observing events rather than re-creating ones based on the well-intentioned but heavily massaged recollections of its participants.

A scene in which Greene attempts to demonstrate whoopee cushions to flabbergasted Ethiopians carries the tartness needed to leaven a story that sometimes veers into the saccharine. The same is true when Greene's own adopted Ethiopian daughter, Helen, now living in the United States, challenges her new mother: 'If I wasn't going to have my own bedroom, why did you adopt me?!'

A similar stab of insight comes when Teferra, visiting Greene and Helen in suburban Atlanta, announces, 'You have ruined her. She is no longer Ethiopian.' This rebuke arrives despite good grades, achievement in sports and far more parental love than imaginable had Helen stayed in an Ethiopian orphanage.

But through most of the book, Greene works too hard to give mythic, uplifting power to a tale drearily predictable to those familiar with stories of the AIDS catastrophe in Africa: There are staggering numbers; frustrated and overwhelmed aid workers; cute, suffering, hopeful children. Greene also supplies a hefty dose of outrage at drug companies that seem to value profit over the survival of millions of people. And the West comes in for a beating for what Greene portrays as a lackadaisical response to African AIDS deaths. She enters the heads of patients waiting to learn the results of their own AIDS tests and imagining, naively, that once the outside world is alerted to the situation, it will ride to the rescue — 'Because how could people know and not help?'

After a few hundred pages, there is something enervating about a book that seems to be as much a call-to-arms as a narrative account of one woman's struggle to fight the disease. Luckily for Greene, the late-breaking twist in Teferra's life sends a jolt of energy through the tale.

Teferra slides into disrepute through a combination of local rumormongering and the magnifying effect of the Internet. The allegations — from financial improprieties to child trafficking — multiply to the point that Teferra lands briefly in jail and loses control of her orphanages. To make matters worse (or, from the dramatic point of view, better), Teferra's fall flows directly from the author's intervention in her life. Before tackling her book, Greene wrote about Teferra for Good Housekeeping magazine, giving her hard-earned recognition but also a sudden dose of fame and fortune for which the Ethiopian was utterly unprepared.

The resolution of that crisis carries unmistakable power and makes the book worth reading. Yet readers may also wish that Greene felt prepared to ride this natural drama a bit harder and longer, while going easier on the mythologizing." Reviewed by Craig Timberg, The Post's Johannesburg bureau chief, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
(hide most of this review)

Book News Annotation:

Atlanta-based journalist Greene is the author of three books and has written for a number of major publications, including the New Yorker, the Washington Post, the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, Newsweek, and Life. She offers an insightful look into the AIDS crisis in Africa through the story of Haregowoin Teferra, an Ethiopian woman who, since losing her husband and 23-year-old daughter to AIDS, has cared for hundreds of AIDS orphans in Addis Ababa. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Review:

"[T]his searing account humanizes the statistics through heartbreaking, intimate stories of what it is like for young orphans left alone in Ethiopia." Booklist

Review:

"Touching and profound..." Library Journal

Review:

"There Is No Me Without You is spectacular, both in its intimacy and in its reach. Melissa Fay Greene's writing sings. It agitates. It inspires....After you read There Is No Me Without You, the world will never look the same." Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here and The Other Side of the River

Review:

"Like the very best literature, There Is No Me Without You charts the human condition in all its extremes....[I]t harnesses the most potent of all human forces: the bond between parent and child." San Diego Union-Tribune

Synopsis:

This volume is the story of Haregewoin Tefarra, a middle-aged Ethiopian woman of modest means whose home has become a refuge for hundreds of children orphaned by AIDS. Today, Haregewoin runs a school, a daycare system, and a shelter for sick mothers.

About the Author

Melissa Fay Greene, award-winning author of Praying for Sheetrock, The Temple Bombing, and Last Man Out, relates a tale that captures the tragedy of an international epidemic and the remarkable people inventing ways to care for its victims. Her Dec. 2002 New York Times Sunday Magazine on the plight of the AIDS orphans inspired scores of adoptions and generated tens of thousands of dollars for the underfunded orphanages of Africa. She has seven children, including two adopted from Ethiopia, and lives in Atlanta.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!

Average customer rating based on 6 comments:

: sew-nice, November 7, 2006 (view all comments by sew-nice)
This book is eye-opening in its portrayal of the HIV crisis affecting Ethiopia (and Africa). As humans we are largely incapable of digesting the statistics Melissa reports about HIV/AIDS. The sheer magnitude of a disease that has morphed into the millions is too staggering to hold in thought. This book encompasses the very readable life journey of an inspiring woman, in Ethiopia, living in the midst of HIV/AIDS, intermixed with history, statistics and facts. The way that Melissa personalizes the crisis and broadens our focus to include not only the direct victims of HIV but also the orphaned and often ostracized children, is positively brilliant. This book will educate, stimulate and inspire even the most hardened heart.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(28 of 48 readers found this comment helpful)

report this comment

: Rich Hehn, November 2, 2006 (view all comments by Rich Hehn)
Amazing! This nonfiction novel gracefully leads you through the current AIDS crisis in Ethiopia and sub-Saharan Africa by gracefully weaving stunning facts and statistics with human accounts and personalities. You won't be able to put it down. I have bought several copies of this important and wonderful book to loan out: It is that important and that good. It's one of the best books I've read in a very long time. This book could change the world.
Rich Hehn, Library Media Specialist
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(30 of 49 readers found this comment helpful)

report this comment

: Owlhaven, September 19, 2006 (view all comments by Owlhaven)
As the mother of two Ethiopian daughters I found this book to be incredibly interesting and touching. The statistics about the problem of AIDS in Africa are jawdropping. But the heart of the book is the story of this woman and the children she helps. Though non-fiction, the book reads like a novel. I read it cover to cover in two very long evenings. A week after I finished it, I was already thinking about reading it again. Except I also wanted to share it with everyone I know-- what a dilemma! I may be buying another copy or two. Read this book for yourself. You will be entertained. Your heart will be touched. And your view of the world will be broadened.

Mary, mom to 8
http://owlhaven.wordpress.com
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(34 of 59 readers found this comment helpful)

report this comment

View all 6 comments

Product Details

ISBN:: 9781596911161
Subtitle:: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Africa's Children
Author:: Greene, Melissa Fay
Publisher:: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Subject:: General
Subject:: Women
Subject:: Child welfare
Subject:: Orphans
Subject:: Philanthropy & Charity
Subject:: Humanitarians
Subject:: General Social Science
Subject:: Teferra, Haregewoin
Subject:: Children of AIDS patients - Ethiopia -
Edition Description:: U.S.
Publication Date:: September 5, 2006
Binding:: Hardcover
Language:: English
Pages:: 472
Dimensions:: 926x650x150 189

Other books you might like

$29.95 New Trade Paper add to wish list

AIDS in Africa: How the Poor Are Dying
Nana K. Poku
$9.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

Reaching Out to Africa's Orphans: A Framework for Public Action
Kalanidhi Subbarao
$9.95 Used Hardcover add to wish list

Black Death: AIDS in Africa
Susan Hunter
$12.00 New Trade Paper add to wish list

Chameleon Days: An American Boyhood in Ethiopia
Tim Bascom
$18.50 New Hardcover add to wish list

The Politics of Bones: Dr. Owens Wiwa and the Struggle for Nigeria's Oil
J. Timothy Hunt
$31.75 New Trade Paper add to wish list

Brief Counseling That Works: A Solution-Focused Approach for School Counselors and Administrators
Gerald B. Sklare

Related Aisles

RSS 2.0
Log Off

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.