Customer Reviews

A Painful Season and A Stubborn Hope: The Odyssey of an Eritrean Mother

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Throughout this beautifully written book is woven the heart-wrenching story of a nation and a people who have struggled for decades in order to 'breath the air of freedom'. A nation that has sacrificed its precious daughters and sons in order to have the right to self-determination. Abeba Tesfagiorgis includes in her book her story of imprisionment,having to allow her teenage children to make their decisions as strong Eritrean women despite her breaking heart upon having to come to terms with their mortality and then becoming a refugee with her two younger daughters and her husband. While reading this, I was also able to get an invaluable glimpse of the personal stories of various Eritrean women who came from differnt socio-economic backgrounds, different age groups, different religions and different parts of Eritrea. Like most people who have read this book, I couldn't stop the tears from falling and my heart from aching for the personal stories within the story of this small nation. I recommend this book to anyone who would like to get a glimple of the personal side of the Eritrean story and the triumph of the human spirit.

Review: A Painful Season and A Stubborn Hope is a record of Abeba Tesfagiorgis1 experience at the hands of the Ethiopians in Asmara and the oddyssey which follows her escape, giving us a picture of how thoroughly the forces, first he Emperor, and then the Stalinist dictator Mengistu, alienated the Eritrean people. Abeba1s tale will stand for a long time as a remarkable story of an Eritrean experience and of the forces which created an Eritrean diaspora. It will astound, elevate and ennoble all who read it. (excerpted from a review by Tom Keneally, award-winning novelist of To Asmara and Schindler1s List.)

I have used this powerful book in my college class on African politics, and found it a great way to get my (female) students in the U.S. engaged in what might seem to them otherwise to be a very distant topic. I think it could also be used for advanced high school classes, or for other college classes on gender or national self-determination. Ms. Tesfagiorgis has given us an eloquent narrative of not just Eritrea's struggle, but of the strength of which human beings are capable in the most difficult of circumstances. My only criticism is that the proofreading by the editor could have been more careful; this is certainly not the fault of the author.

Although I'm very interested in Eritrea, I found this book a duty rather than a pleasure. That's probably just a personal preference. I found the author a bit predictable and didn't find myself caring enough about her, despite her situation.