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there is no me without you by Melissa Fay Greene
Release date: 2006 / 427 pages
Synopsis (from back cover): In this powerful and highly acclaimed book, award-winning journalist Melissa 
Fay Greene tells the story of Haregewoin Teferra, a middle-class Ethiopian woman who found herself at the heart of a global health crisis. After the loss of her husband and daughter, Teferra reluctantly agreed to take in two of Addis Ababa’s thousands of AIDS orphans, and soon children of all ages began to appear at the door of her tin-walled compound. At heart, it is a book about children and parents, wherever they may be, however they may find each other.
First line: “On a dim, clattering afternoon in the rainy season, I sat in a crowded living room in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, stupefied by water.”
Review: I am so excited to review this book!! Initially sister asked me to read it to prepare for our upcoming trip to Ethiopia to meet her new daughter, and then my mom ordered a book club kit on it. So, similar to my approach to Capote in Kansas, I decided to read 50 pages a day and wasn’t sure what to expect.
I certainly did not expect to be so inspired, outraged, informed and entertained. Again, I found myself tearing through the book with little notice to my allotted pages and finished it well before schedule. Greene’s writing is compelling and page-turning — whew!
The book starts with the story of one little boy (“Minty”) and one older woman (Haregewoin), brought together because Minty’s father is dying of AIDS, and so he will soon need a new home. Haregewoin shelters AIDS orphans (children orphaned by AIDS, but not necessarily HIV-positive themselves) and raises them. The opening scene is powerful and painful as Minty refuses to grasp that he will soon lose his father.
Although the book starts “in medias res” (in the middle of things), Greene eventually reveals Haregewoin’s past — so very “normal” — and shows us how she comes to house hundreds of AIDS orphans. Her story is very much a hero’s journey and, like all heroes, she is flawed, even deeply flawed at times, but nevertheless a great inspiration.
Intertwined with Haregewoin’s story is the history of AIDS in Africa, the horrifying pandemic that exists today, and how the expiration of Western drug companies’ stranglehold (in the name of “intellectual property”) of retroviral medicines is finally providing hope to this beleagured nation. At one point an AIDS activist recommends that these drug companies should be brought to task — maybe even to trial — for crimes against humanity, and this statement isn’t nearly as outragous as it may initially sound.
Fortunately, this book is not simply 427 pages of destitution and powerlessness — not by a long shot. The last section describes four American couples who decide to adopt AIDS orphans from Ethiopia and their experiences had me shedding tears of joy as I finished the book. Not that the stories are unrealistically glowing reports of assimilation — in fact, they are so much more powerful due to Greene’s portrayal of just how difficult it can be to transition to a new country and family, but how well-worth these growing pains are.
While researching the kit for this book, I found that it had won many, many awards the year it was published: Entertainment Weekly ’s Best Book of 2006, Elle magazine’s 2006 Readers’ Prize in Nonfiction, an ALA and Book Sense Notable Book, Chicago Tribune and Atlanta Journal-Constitutional Best Book of 2006, and many more. So, this glowing review may not be a surprise to many of you. But if you were like me, unaware of this wonderful book, please consider it. I highly recommend it!!
I have this book in my TBR pile. It sounds like one I’d love. I’m moving it up!
Thanks for reviewing this book. I loved it!
Thank you, Deb and Kim!
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