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4 Burnside Africa- Ethiopia
2 Hawthorne World History- Africa
16 Local Warehouse Biography- Humanitarians
8 Remote Warehouse Sociology- Children and Family


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

by Melissa Fay Greene

There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Her Country's Children Cover

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)

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:

"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

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

Synopsis:

Two-time National Book Award nominee Melissa Fay Greene puts a human face on the African AIDS crisis with this powerful story of one woman working to save her country’s children. After losing her husband and daughter, Haregewoin Teferra, an Ethiopian woman of modest means, opened her home to some of the thousands of children in Addis Ababa who have been left as orphans. There Is No Me Without You is the story of how Haregewoin transformed her home into an orphanage and day-care center and began facilitating adoptions to homes all over the world, written by a star of literary nonfiction who is herself an adoptive parent. At heart, it is a book about children and parents, wherever they may be, however they may find each other. Winner of Elle magazine’s 2006 readers’ award in nonfiction.

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.

Product Details

ISBN:
9781596912939
Subtitle:
One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Her Country's Children
Author:
Greene, Melissa Fay
Publisher:
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Subject:
Women
Subject:
Philanthropy & Charity
Subject:
Humanitarians
Subject:
General Social Science
Publication Date:
September 2007
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
472
Dimensions:
822x558x136 105

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