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hay_jude's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
I remembered reading a piece by Hannah Azieb Pool about her adoption and her Eritrean background a long time ago when she wrote for the Guardian but I hadn't connected the two when I picked up this book, perhaps because the she was known simply as Hannah Pool then. I'm a sucker for programmes about adoption such as 'Long Lost Family' so I was drawn to read this but it also appealed to me as a book by a black Briton as I have read a lot by black authors in the last few years which have helped me appreciate the difficulties of being part of a black minority in a white country where racism is ingrained and encountered by minorities in ways it's difficult to imagine if you are white. Pool writes movingly about the complexities of her situation, her fears and hopes before she returns to Eritrea to meet her birth family and the mix of emotions she feels during her stay there. She knows these encounters will be life changing and she doesn't shy away from the negative aspects of her experience as well as the positive. The meetings with her family are beautifully told and the part where she returns to the village where she was born and is able to lie on the bed where she was born and where her mother died is particularly poignant. Ultimately she is finds what she has craved for, an understanding of how and why she came to be adopted and a sense of family, belonging and identity which was missing hitherto. The Afterword at the end brings us up to date with how things are now in Eritrea, the hopefulness she found on her first visit now clouded by the dictatorship where life for her relatives is increasingly difficult, so that was quite depressing. Overall this was a brilliant read, thoroughly recommended.
karinlib's review against another edition
4.0
This is s wonderful book about a woman who was adopted from Eritrea, grows up in England and believed that she was an orphan with no family. What I liked so much about the book was her honesty. She described in detail how she felt about being adopted, then finding out that she had a family that wanted to meet her. The anxiety of meeting her real father, and the emotions she experienced, traveling to Eritrea to meet her him for the first time.
Hannah Pool describes the villages where most of her family lives as well as the capital, Asmara. She wrote this book in such a way that you feel you are right there beside her through all of it. I highly recommend it.
Hannah Pool describes the villages where most of her family lives as well as the capital, Asmara. She wrote this book in such a way that you feel you are right there beside her through all of it. I highly recommend it.
sssnoo's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
This book is a very special book to me. I picked it for my literary journey to Eritrea, but I also picked it because it is a memoir by an Eritrean adoptee on her first homeland visit to her birth country. The world wide diaspora of peoples from the Horn of Africa is personal to me. My children are part of that diaspora - two by birth with an Ethiopian father, and 4 adopted as young children from Ethiopia. My two youngest have a Tigrinyan mother and Eritrean father. The other two are Amhara, from Addis Ababa. I’ve taken my children back to Ethiopia to reconnect with surviving birth family and, while every experience is unique, this book captures the complexity of the Ethiopian/Eritrean adoption-related diaspora. It is so complicated. These homeland trips are amazing, devastating, surreal - so many adjectives to pick from - and always life changing.
Thank you to Hannah Pool for sharing her incredibly personal journey. If you are touched in some way by this diaspora, this is a book where you can feel part of a larger experience. So many times I paused and wept as a memory crept back in.
Thank you to Hannah Pool for sharing her incredibly personal journey. If you are touched in some way by this diaspora, this is a book where you can feel part of a larger experience. So many times I paused and wept as a memory crept back in.
vikingwolf's review against another edition
2.0
Hannah was born in Eritrea, and adopted by a white family who settled in the UK. Out of the blue, a letter arrives from her real brother to explain that she still has a whole family in Eritrea who want to meet her. After 10 years of stalling, she decides to go and meet her family but is totally unprepared for the culture shock.
This was a decent book to read, seeing how other people are brought up and how different other cultures are. I did enjoy this but the author really bugged me. She seemed to be constantly complaining about the different way she was expected to behave in Eritrea. I know going somewhere less liberal might be shocking and you don't like the way things are done, but you must respect the country's laws and traditions while you are visiting! Grow up Hannah and be glad to meet your family! She gets the sulks when not invited to a wedding and has a tantrum, then complains about the long journey to the venue when she is finally told she can come. She behaves like a petulant child every time him father dissapproves of something she wears and it did spoil the book a bit for me.
This was a decent book to read, seeing how other people are brought up and how different other cultures are. I did enjoy this but the author really bugged me. She seemed to be constantly complaining about the different way she was expected to behave in Eritrea. I know going somewhere less liberal might be shocking and you don't like the way things are done, but you must respect the country's laws and traditions while you are visiting! Grow up Hannah and be glad to meet your family! She gets the sulks when not invited to a wedding and has a tantrum, then complains about the long journey to the venue when she is finally told she can come. She behaves like a petulant child every time him father dissapproves of something she wears and it did spoil the book a bit for me.
lifeinpoetry's review against another edition
4.0
Just a note, was refreshing to see a content warning at the start of this audiobook. It is in fact possible to see that this is a tremendous work in regard to an adoptee reuniting with her bio family from her country of birth while also acknowledging she went in with stereotypical views/fears of said country.
emurph09's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.5
There’s nothing quite like Eritrean coffee. Apart from, perhaps, Ethiopian coffee, but that’s for someone else’s book.
liralen's review against another edition
3.0
In [b:Held at a Distance|691086|Held at a Distance My Rediscovery of Ethiopia|Rebecca G. Haile|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328770521s/691086.jpg|677430], the author talks a bit about the divide between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the very strong feelings some people have about the latter's identity and independence. This is one of those cases -- the author wants it known that she is Eritrean and has no connection to Ethiopia.
That the author is British by upbringing is also obvious in her writing -- it's funny how clearly voice can come through on a page -- but also allows her the distance to describe her impressions of Eritrea as an outsider. It is her land by birth, but it is not her culture, and an outside perspective affords a different view than an inside one.
I had a lot of questions at the end of this. Some of them she might well have been unable to answer: how many aunts and uncles did she have? What was her father's upbringing like? His daily life? (As the author does, I'll use father for her biological father and dad for her adoptive dad.)
But other questions she could have: what of her dad and the rest of that family? Throughout the book she struggles -- quite understandably -- with the questions of where she belongs, what legacy is hers, why she was given up for adoption. She is convinced that it was a mistake, that she would have been better off -- or at least happier -- with her Eritrean family, abject poverty and lack of opportunity notwithstanding. But there's a huge swath of information missing -- that about her English family. For a book about family and belonging, and one in which the title refers to both fathers, it seems a glaring omission.
With all that in mind, it's an interesting look at a country I know almost nothing about. Not perfect by any stretch, but interesting -- and in many ways that's more important.
That the author is British by upbringing is also obvious in her writing -- it's funny how clearly voice can come through on a page -- but also allows her the distance to describe her impressions of Eritrea as an outsider. It is her land by birth, but it is not her culture, and an outside perspective affords a different view than an inside one.
I had a lot of questions at the end of this. Some of them she might well have been unable to answer: how many aunts and uncles did she have? What was her father's upbringing like? His daily life? (As the author does, I'll use father for her biological father and dad for her adoptive dad.)
But other questions she could have: what of her dad and the rest of that family? Throughout the book she struggles -- quite understandably -- with the questions of where she belongs, what legacy is hers, why she was given up for adoption. She is convinced that it was a mistake, that she would have been better off -- or at least happier -- with her Eritrean family, abject poverty and lack of opportunity notwithstanding. But there's a huge swath of information missing -- that about her English family. For a book about family and belonging, and one in which the title refers to both fathers, it seems a glaring omission.
With all that in mind, it's an interesting look at a country I know almost nothing about. Not perfect by any stretch, but interesting -- and in many ways that's more important.
amyjo25's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.0