The Translator...random thoughts

First of all, let me thank Megan once again for passing this book along to me...so very sweet of her! I'll be passing it along to one of you soon as well, but Rich wants to read it first.

The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari. The title alone clues one in. Darfur. It's not going to be an easy read.

And, of course, it wasn't. How could it possibly be easy to read about the depraved acts that man plies upon man. Daoud Hari does not share horror after horror after horror with us, however. Though he himself witnessed numerous horrors, and heard countless more from refugees as he worked as an interpreter for the United Nations and U.S. State Department as they conducted interviews to make a legal determination as to whether genocide was occurring, he shares but a minute fraction of these stories. A minute fraction is enough. In fact, one particular story was enough to cause me nightmares. I've read "tough" books before, but this is the first time I've ever had a nightmare as a result. A story of a loving father, tied to a tree and beaten. Then forced to watch his 4-year-old daughter's brutal murder.

In quite a different way, it was an easy read. Not content-wise, of course, but in the way it is written. Daoud Hari writes in such a simple, straight-forward manner. He talks directly to the reader. He even manages to inject humor into his story. But he is never disrespectful. Never.

While the story he tells is a personal one, it is also a story of his home, Darfur. And one of the things that makes these horrors all the harder to bear is the fact that this is happening now. Not ancient history. But current event. Not past. But present.

And still, Dauod Hari is a man of great hope. He writes in the introduction:

"If God must break your leg He will at least teach you to limp"--so it is said in Africa. This book is my poor limping, a modest account that cannot tell every story that deserves telling. I have seen and heard many things in Darfur that have broken my heart. I bring the stories to you because I know most people want others to have good lives, and, when they understand the situation, they will do what they can to steer the world back toward kindness.

"...they will do what they can to steer the world back toward kindness." For a man who has seen what he has seen to write these words is the most beautiful sign of hope I can possibly imagine.

I really don't know what else to say about this book. Read it. Really.

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If you've reviewed this book (and I know many people have), please leave me a link in the comments and I'll add it here. Thanks.

*Megan of Leafing through Life
*Natasha at Maw Books
*Somer at SomeReads
*Chris at Stuff As Dreams Are Made On