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Sign up todayThe Translator
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Learn moreI am the translator who has taken journalists into dangerous Darfur. It is my intention now to take you there in this book, if you have the courage to come with me.
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–an 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 destroyedhis 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. . . .
The Translator tells the remarkable story of a man who came face-to-face with genocide– time and again risking his own life to fight injustice and save his people.
Daoud Hari was born in the Darfur region of Sudan. After escaping an attack on his village, he entered the refugee camps in Chad and began serving as a translator for major news organizations including The New York Times, NBC, and the BBC, as well as the United Nations and other aid groups. He now lives in the United States and is part of SaveDarfur.org’s Voices from Darfur tour. For more information about Hari and the conflict in the Darfur region, visit www.thetranslator-book.com.
Reviews
“[The Translator] may be the biggest small book of this year, or any year. In roughly two hundred pages of simple, lucid prose, it lays open the Darfur genocide more intimately and powerfully than do a dozen books by journalists or academic experts. . . . Restrained, generous, gentle, and—astonishingly—humorous.”—The Washington Post Book World“The Translator consecrates as much as it horrifies. . . . I intend no impertinence when I say that some secular books—certainly this one—are also a form of Holy Communion.”—John Leonard, Harper’s Magazine
“Hari’s tone is often gentle and sweet . . . despite the horrors. He retains his survivor’s instinct to move on and better himself.”—Newsweek
“Will remind you of A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah.”—USA Today
“Our hero (and few narrators deserve the term more) simply but evocatively describes his adventures. . . . Hari’s optimistic outlook and belief in the goodness of mankind—despite the many times when heavily armed people seem hell-bent on disproving that belief—leaven what could have been a very bleak book. [Grade:] A.”—Entertainment Weekly
“There are times when a thing of beauty lifts itself from within the most horrific circumstances—and so it is with this new memoir. . . . An uncommon glimpse of the preciousness of life.”—GO Magazine
“[A] harrowing but hopeful account of the genocide in Sudan, as told by one of the courageous locals who make it possible for a stubborn cadre of journalists to bring word of the atrocities to the outside world.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“This is a book every American should read. . . . In the spirit of courage and a desire to protect his people, [Hari] has written an emotional yet gentle memoir.”—Deseret Morning News
“Heart-stopping . . . [The] eventual rescue reads like James Bond. . . . Throughout, Hari demonstrates almost incomprehensible decency; those with the courage to join Hari’s odyssey may find this a life-changing read.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Pure, candid and deeply moving . . . shares many qualities that have made books like Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl . . . so inspiring . . . Though he takes us to hell and back, [Hari] never loses his ability to look at the bright side of life.”—New York Post
“Poignant . . . an essential primer [and] an excellent choice for readers who might be intimidated by the longer, academic texts on the subject . . . Hari strikes an easy balance between informing his Western readers about the causes and human costs of the Darfur conflict and keeping the narrative personal. He approaches us as friends, ones whom he trusts to read his story and tell others what is happening.”—The Sunday Oregonian
“Hari’s stirring memoir is not meant to be a geopolitical analysis of the conflict raging through the western region of Sudan. Rather it is a personal, surprisingly engaging story of his own experiences growing up in Darfur as the youngest son in a family of herders and shepherds. . . . Hari continues to advocate for the people of Darfur with a sweetness and humanity.”—BookPage Expand reviews
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