Book review: Strength in What Remains
Posted on Saturday, May 15th, 2010
Strength in What Remains is New York Times bestselling author Tracy Kidder’s finest work so far and it is praised by many reviewers for being one of the best books of 2009 overall.
In Strength in What Remains, we read the extraordinary true story of Deo, a young Burundese man, leaving behind what once seemed a promising life in Africa as a third-year medical student.
Deo grew up in the mountains of Burundi, and survived a civil war and genocide before seeking a new and uncertain life in America. In New York City he lived homeless in Central Park while delivering groceries for starvation wages. His own ambition and a few kind New Yorkers led him to Columbia University and, beyond that, to medical school and American citizenship.
That his rise followed a familiar immigrant’s path to success doesn’t make it any less remarkable, but what gives Deo’s story its particular power is that becoming an American citizen did not erase his connection to Burundi, in either his memory or his dreams for the future.
Writing with the same modest but dogged empathy that made his recent novel Mountains Beyond Mountains
Being an extraordinary writer, Tracy Kidder has the remarkable ability to show us what it means to be fully human, and to tell the unadorned story of a life based on hope. Riveting and inspiring, this may be his most magnificent work to date. Strength in What Remains is a testament to the power of will and friendship, and of the endurance of the soul.
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Our rating: 
- Author: Tracy Kidder
- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Random House; First Edition edition (August 25, 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1400066212
- ISBN-13: 978-1400066216
Being published in August 2009, Strength in What Remains is not a very recent book release. But I couldn’t resist to add it to the site, since it definitely is one of my personal favorites!
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