First published 2012
Haregewoin Teferra lives in a tin-walled compound outside Addis Ababa when devastating personal losses shatter her world. Grief drives her to seek solace in her church, where leaders present her with an unexpected request. They ask her to shelter two orphaned children. She says yes. That single decision transforms her life forever. Once Haregewoin opens her gate, she cannot bring herself to close it again. Children arrive at her doorstep by foot, by bus, by donkey cart. Many carry HIV. All have lost parents to AIDS. Ethiopia counts over a million such orphans, but Haregewoin sees individual faces, not statistics. She refuses to turn away the sick and abandoned when others flee from them. Her compound fills with children who have nowhere else to go. Each arrival changes both the woman who welcomes them and the community that surrounds them.
Genres: biography, contemporary, non-fiction, adoption, africa
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family
Setting: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Period: 21st-century
481 pages · Kindle Edition · Bloomsbury Paperbacks
Content warnings: death