Tracy Kidder wrote another extraordinary novel: Strength in What Remains (2009) about Deo, a man from Burundi who came to America (NYC) in 1994 with $200 and no English. He returned to Burundi in 2006 to help his people, the human race. You will be moved by this book - this story, this man. It is described as a journey of remembrance and forgiveness, what it means to be a human being. It is so much more than that. You cannot help but be changed, by what he did, what he is doing, what it means for each of us.
The lovely, wonderful, ordinary people who helped him - from the baggage checker who knew what he was up against right from the start (how immigration let him in is still a mystery!) - sleeping in Central Park, delivering groceries, taking any job to make a life. Reading dictionaries in the bookstores to lean English. The descriptions of his wonderment at the weather, flying in a plane, getting lost in the subway, to the people who got him into to Medical school. His decisions to go back and give back. The telling statements - I have killed people since 1967. What you are doing makes me ashamed.
It is a powerful book.
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