The Translator by Daoud Hari - Review

The Translator

by Daoud Hari

Publisher: Random House

Publ. Date: March 2008

224pp

Nonfiction

From the Front Flap:

The young life of Daoud Hari - his friends call him David - has been one of bravery and mesmerizing adventure. He is a living witness to the brutal genocide under way in Darfur.

The Translator is a suspenseful, harrowing, and deeply moving memoir of how one person has made a difference in the world - and on-the-ground account of one of the biggest stories of our time. Using his high school knowledge of languages as his weapon - while others around him were taking up arms - Daoud Hari has helped inform the world about Darfur.

Hari, a Zaghawa tribesman, grew up in a village in the Darfur region of Sudan. As a child he saw colorful weddings, raced his camels across the desert, and played games in the moonlight after his work was done. In 2003, this traditional life was shattered when helicopter gunships appeared over Darfur's villages, followed by Sudanese-government-backed militia groups attacking on horseback, raping and murdering citizens and burning villages. Ancient hatreds and greed for natural resources had collided, and the conflagration spread.

Though Hari's village was attacked and destroyed, his family decimated and dispersed, he himself escaped. Roaming the battlefield deserts on camels, he and a group of his friends helped survivors find food, water, and the way to safety. When international aid groups and reporters arrived, Hari offered his services as a translator and guide. In doing so, he risked his life again and again, for the government of Sudan had outlawed journalists in the region, and death was the punishment for those who aided the "foreign spies."

And then, inevitably, his luck ran out and he was captured....

Quotes From the Book:

You have to be stronger than your fears if you want to get anything done in this life. P11

Imagine if all the systems and rules that held your country together fell apart suddenly and your family members were all - every one of them - in a dangerous situation. It was like that. P37

It was like this everywhere, the best way to bury your pain is to help others and lose yourself in that. P64

My Opinion:

It is never easy reading a book that contains stories of brutal deaths caused by genocide, but it is important to be informed about what is happening to other members of our family - the human race.

To say that I was moved by this book would be an understatement. There were many stories that touched me, but there was one in particular about a father with a four-year-old daughter that upset me so much I had to pause from reading. I have a four-year-old son, and my heart could not stand the thought of any such thing happening to him.

This was a fast read, and definitely a serious topic, but also a worthy one.

*I reviewed this book as part of the Reading for Darfur event at Maw Books Blog.