Only books purchased from Warwick's will be signed. Please call the Warwick's Book Dept. An American citizen, Deo was born in rural Burundi, where he attended grade school and part of medical school. He left the country during the catastrophic war that lasted more than a decade and took the lives of hundreds of thousands people. Deo survived not only this man-made tragedy and poverty, but also homelessness in New York City. Deo wanted to know where he should go to pick up his bag. The policemen looked surprised.
One of them asked another question. They looked at each other and laughed, and the woman explained to Deo that he was in a country called Ireland, in a place called Shannon Airport. He chatted with the woman afterward. She told him she was Russian. What mattered to Deo was that she spoke French. She asked him where he came from, and before he knew it he had said too much. She started asking questions. He was from Burundi? And had escaped from Rwanda?
She had been to Rwanda. She was a journalist. She planned to write about the terrible events there. Was he a Tutsi? She arranged to sit next to him on the flight to New York.
He felt glad for the company, and besieged by her questions. She wanted to know all about his experiences. To answer felt dangerous. What would she write? What if she found out his name and used it? Would bad people read it and come to find him in New York? He tried to tell her as little as possible. She seemed like a friend, his only friend on this journey. He wanted to pay her back for helping him in Ireland, and pay her in advance for helping him enter New York.
So he tried to answer her questions without revealing anything important. They talked most of the way to New York. But he lost track of her leaving the plane. When he reached Immigration and took a place at the end of one of the lines, he finally spotted her. She was standing in another line, pretending not to see him. He looked away, down at his sneakers, blurred by tears. The spasm passed. And what was there to fear?
What could the man in the booth up ahead do to him? There was nothing to do except smile. Then the first agent got up from his seat and called another agent over. Eventually, the second agent went off and came back with a third man — a short, burly, black-skinned man with a bunch of keys as big as a fist on his belt. He introduced himself to Deo in French.
His name was Muhammad. He said he came from Senegal. What business? Selling coffee beans, Deo told them through Muhammad. Just keep smiling, Deo told himself.
He could tell them anything they wanted to know about Burundian coffee. How much money did he have? Two hundred dollars, Deo said. The cash had been a gift from Jean. Exchanged for Burundian francs, it could have bought a lot of cows. But neither Muhammad nor the agents looked impressed. Where was he staying? A hotel, he said. The agents laughed. A week in a hotel on dollars? Muhammad said something in English to the agents. His words must have been the right ones, because after a few more questions, the agents shrugged at each other and let him through, into America.
After six months on the run, he was in the habit of not looking ahead. God had taken care of him so far. And still was taking care of him, it seemed. As this stocky and serious-looking stranger, Muhammad, walked him out of Customs, he said that Deo could stay with him in New York City. But Deo would have to wait here for three hours.
Muhammad worked at the airport as a baggage handler. He had to finish his shift. The Road of Lost Innocence. Miracle in the Andes. Vince Rause and Nando Parrado. The Seamstress. Sara Tuval Bernstein. The Private Life of Chairman Mao. If I Die in a Combat Zone. Scribbling the Cat. Alexandra Fuller. The Last Resort.
Douglas Rogers. Until We Are Free. Shirin Ebadi. Simon Murray. Ester and Ruzya. Masha Gessen. Factory Girls. Leslie T.
Small Country. Related Articles. Looking for More Great Reads? Download Hi Res. Get the latest updates from Tracy Kidder. And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week. What do they indicate about Deo's personality?
What do they say about the culture in which he grew up? In the epilogue, Deo recounts the story of a mother who is among a group of Burundian volunteers who help him build a road to his clinic. Three of her children have already died and she carries another sick child of hers as she works. We become so much sick because we are poor, but we are not poor because we are lazy.
Why do you think, that even at all costs, they are so committed to seeing Deo's dream become a reality? Personal Essay 1. In Chapter 13, Kidder provides a synopsis of historical events leading up to the disintegration of order and the rise of chaos in Burundi and Rwanda.
He quotes Peter Uvin, "social exclusion and the ethnicization of politics. Works of Peter Uvin are noted in the sources section of Strength. In response to Kidder's question about studying philosophy, Deo says, "I wanted to understand what had happened to me. Deo, in fact, was physically he made weekly fourteen hour treks to the family's vegetable fields and intellectually he knew his plants and could diagnose the condition of his own body fit to withstand the terror he endured.
Analyze the roles that philosophy, providence, and evolution play in Deo's life. Of the three, choose which role you think is most pertinent to Deo's survival.
Compare and contrast Conrad's work with what you have learned about the Burundian civil war and Rwandan genocide. In the epilogue of Strength , Kidder suggests the role international organizations and international aid played in the terror perpetrated in Burundi and Rwanda the poorest of countries. Describe this role. Support or refute this role by citing reliable sources. In second grade, Deo read a book of fables. The moral of the story is that a fool is one who talks too much.
In another instance, a rebellious medical student compares Deo to a beheaded snake Chapter 7. As Deo recounts his life in flight, he alludes to gruesome scenes involving severed heads. Analyze these and other references of detachment in Strength. What message or messages do they deliver about evolving or devolving societies? The Kirundi term gusimbura recurs throughout this book.
Analyze its meaning. Is its meaning more akin to being silent, forgetting, or forgiving? A survival theme in Strength centers on education. Deo's father convinces Grandfather Lonjino to continue the education of Deo's uncle. Deo's father and mother, convinced that education is the way of advancement for their children, ensure that their children attend school.
Though Deo's education is interrupted by civil war and genocide, he eventually achieves an advanced education. Examine the qualities of Deo's character which you think compelled him to persevere. Family bonds are strong in Burundian culture. Because of the amount of time Deo spends being cared for by his grandfather, Lonjino, they developed an extremely close bond. What qualities remain with Deo as a result of this bond? Deo meets Dr.
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