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The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic Series) | 
 enlarge | Author: Daoud Hari
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Category: Book
List Price: $32.95
Buy New: $28.77
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Avg. Customer Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 1704788
Format: Large Print
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 269
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.7 x 1
ISBN: 1410407438
Dewey Decimal Number: 962.4043092
EAN: 9781410407436
ASIN: 1410407438
Publication Date: July 2, 2008
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Product Description
"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 bend the world back toward kindness. This is when human beings, I believe, are most admirable."
The young life of Daoud Hari – his friends call him David – has been one of bravery and mesmerizing adventure. As a translator and the guide of choice to media, the US Embassy, and the United Nations, Hari became a vital link to the outside world, a living witness to the brutal genocide underway in Darfur. Most of the reporting on the great tragedies of our day has been written by journalists, and after-the-fact. Rarely, in a conflict of this magnitude, has there been an eyewitness voice to the events as they are still happening. Daoud Hari is that voice.
The Translator is a suspenseful, harrowing and deeply moving memoir of how one person can make a difference in the world – an on-the-ground account of one of the biggest stories of our time.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 Daoud's Personal Account Sheds Light on Situation in Darfur September 23, 2008
I just finished Hari's book and must say that I believe it deserves no less than seven out of five stars! Although Hari is responsible for helping dozens of journalists write the articles they needed to get the story of Darfur to the world, I don't believe anyone can come close to Hari's first hand account. In Hari's book we learn of the culture and lifestyle of the Zaghawa (those natives of Darfur who are targeted by the government of Sudan)--a complex people with ancient traditions and a keen knowledge of survival. We learn of their rich family tradition, hospitality, generosity and wisdom. This introduction to the Zaghawa makes their situation real and urgent to the Western reader and is most important if one is to understand the consequence of the genocide. Hari is a master at subtle and poignant prose. He writes in a simple manner that is as keen to letting the reader in on the details that make the landscape of Darfur come alive as he is at keeping together the big picture. His humanity is magnetic and his recounting of violence and tragedy unforgettable. I would recommend this book as required reading for any political or history classroom. It is easily read and its message is profoundly communicated.
Eyewitness accounts of unspeakable horror and unbelievable kindness... September 10, 2008
Daoud Hari's powerful, penetrating, concise eyewitness account brings the life-or-death struggles of his people into our minds and hearts.
His descriptions of horror can make you weep or retch, yet the book is infused with humanity, dignity, and even humor--a testimony to the worst and best humankind has to offer. Daoud Hari has witnessed utmost cruelties and survived unspeakable crimes which struck down his family, his village, the region of Darfur, and which continue to corrupt and cripple the nation of Sudan, as its tribal citizens are wiped off the face of the earth or turned into unwelcome refugees.
Overwhelmed by the senseless loss of his brother, the escape of his aged mother into the wilderness to hide, the dangerous roaming of his aged, noble father, the author sought to do something meaningful in the wake of madness that engulfed everyone and everything he knew. Armed with the ability to speak Zaghawa, Arabic, and English, and with intimate knowledge of Darfur's geography, Hari became useful to aid organizations and journalists. He became determined to help bring to the outside world the stories of those who died, who killed them, how, and why. The courage and humanity of journalists and other individuals who gathered eyewitness accounts of the genocide in Sudan comprise an essential part of his story. He also supplies significant insights into the historic and cultural contexts of the strife in his country.
In a growing field of compelling books on the urgent, deplorable, confusing situation of war and genocide in Sudan, Daoud Hari's _The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur_ stands out in its ability to pervade the reader's conscience. Moving us beyond feeling outraged and overwhelmed by man's inhumanity to man, we develop a deep connection to the author and feel moved to do something to help.
Related readings: _They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan_ by Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, and Benjamin Ajak, with Judy A. Bernstein (PublicAffairs, a member of the Perseus Books Group 2005, 311 pp) _What is the What, The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, A Novel_ by Dave Eggars, 2006 (Vintage 2007, 339 pp) _Emma's War, A True Story_ by Deborah Scroggins, 2002, (Vintage 392 pp)
An Incredible Individual September 3, 2008
Daoud Hari has written a painful, unglossed but also celebratory novel of the Darfur region of Western Sudan, and with his understated approach, genuine character, and very unexpected humor, reminds us that Darfur was a place well before it was a tragedy.
This approach allows Hari to engage his readers on a personal level: he asks them to consider their response to losing their cities and their children; he reminds them of the simple connecting power of cellular telephones, and the vital necessity of friendship. Few individuals presented in Hari's narrative escape as caricatures of evil. Instead, their histories are contemplated, their motivations explored, and the Sudanese government's pitting tribe against tribe is revealed as a manipulative orchestration that will make a man a soldier one week and an enemy the next.
But what makes The Translator most remarkable is that its author exists. Hari does not take credit for much, but his grace, his honesty, and his willingness to learn the individual stories in the murderous epidemic that dominates his land, demonstrates him to be of a completely singular character and a person whose love and friendship will, for some, hold back a end that we might wrongly feel to be inescapable and, for Sudan, inevitable.
Best of Luck August 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Daoud clearly had a remarkable string of luck. He should have died at least a dozen times, but thankfully, he lived and has written this moving and well-written account of his time in the desert. I highly recommend buying this short book and reading it wherever you go. The book could be read in a night but for how sad it is. I found I could only take a chapter a day. If you don't find yourself crying despite your best efforts to remain objective, distant or dispassionate, then you are a stronger person than I.
Outstanding, 5 stars all the way August 22, 2008
As I write this review, I can't think of much interesting to say that hasn't already been written in other reviews, but below I do make some different points, from a metaphysical point of view. It is certainly worth reaffirming the many great things about this book. The author has a fantastic grasp of English, as well as a native, at least from the writing in the book. The book is painful to read but easy nevertheless because most of the writing is simple/pithy but elegant. Not only is his style easy to follow, but also there are many places where he is writing about the amazing events in his life during the catastrophic war in his native Darfur in which he comes out with statements that reveal a precise but again simple, elegant wisdom. One such poignant comment, that unfortunately reminds me of people in my own life, is on p. 149. He is being interrogated by an army general who is telling him that he is the criminal, not the murderous general and his cohorts. Hari comments: "The anger that poured out of him was so great that you could see his soul knew very well that what he was saying was completely wrong."
Thus I obviously recommend "The Translator" very, very highly, no matter how painful it is to read. I did find the last part of the book, where he depicts in great detail the 5 weeks of torture he endured with a reporter and a driver, to be a bit difficult to read due to how much was written and how graphic it was, but no way I'd give this book anything less than 5 stars.
My comments from a metaphysical viewpoint are simply that it's hard for me, who has had a relatively privileged life in America cannot fathom what it is like to live in on a continent where human life seems to be mean almost nothing in times of war and other times. For a long time I've studied and pondered metaphysics, the meaning of life, the fact that the earth school is some kind of "symbolic" place for learning lessons, and that a person who wants to advance as a "soul" not only has to be pure in action, but even pure in thoughts, and that the slightest transgression will set the person back in soul development. Juxtapose that with horrifying accounts of endless brutality, torture, and murder that we read going on in Africa and elsewhere, and one wonders about the "karma" of the evil-doers and their victims, and why some of us are supposed to try to be so "perfect" when such debauchery is tolerated. I would assume that if I were ever in a situation where I was actually experiencing these awful deeds, I would have more to worry about (survival?) than worrying about the metaphysical implications of my current circumstances! I think we can learn compassion, and to be quiet in some kind of humility from reading books like these and pondering the many levels of what they reveal. I do believe that some souls, in a group way, have to go through these outrageous trials before they can "incarnate" in safer places like Europe and the US. A lot of these metaphysical things are simply a mystery as far as I'm concerned.
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