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The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur | 
 enlarge | Author: Daoud Hari
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $23.00
Buy New: $11.50
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New (22) Used (9) Collectible (1) from $11.49
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 3530
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.8 x 1
ISBN: 1400067448
Dewey Decimal Number: 962.4043092
EAN: 9781400067442
ASIN: 1400067448
Publication Date: March 18, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
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Product Description
I 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 A REAL thriller with lots of violence, action, and plenty of mystery! May 14, 2008
This book has all the ingredients of a best-selling thriller, unfortunately though all of it is the true and real memories of Daoud Hari's experience of the genocide in Darfur.
I want to thank the author of this book, Daoud Hari, for teaching me about the situation in Darfur. In the past, I've read newspaper and magazine articles, watched television and listened to radio broadcast that all had information on new events happening in that part of the world. After taking in this information I always felt just a little less ignorant, however I still didn't understand the big picture because as Daoud Hari has stated...This is not a simple genocide, but a complicated one. After reading his book, I understand better than ever the events that lead to this current and ongoing insanity.
If you are like me, feeling helpless against the terrible atrosities that are happening in Darfur and other areas of the world, read this book, then pass it on, write about it and talk about it. Awareness is paramount. If enough people all over the globe voice their concerns, how can world leaders continue to stand silent?
Collectively we all have to decide whether genocide is tolerated as a solution to conflict. What the world decides now will determine whether genocide will happen again somewhere else. It needs to be stoped now.
Gladly recommend this book to anyone who continually wants to understand world affairs.
 The Translator May 4, 2008
Riveting story. Well told with simplicity and even a sense of humor in a very humorless situation.
Simple... powerful.. life changing... April 24, 2008
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I was hesitant to purchase this book because the writing seemed very simple as I skimmed the book in the bookstore; however, it is this simple prose that empowers the journey you take with the author. From the opening story of his life being saved by a Journalist to the closing account of the torture and eventual freedom granted to him (don't worry, this doesn't reveal a surprise ending - after all, he did write the book), you feel that you are being told a story in the simple traditional form of an African tribal legend. Sadly, this is no legend!
When I read about the little girl killed by a soldier in a horrific way, I wept. When I read Daoud's commentary on why Darfur marriages last so long (they sleep separately), I laughed. What struck me was how much this man and his family has suffered and, yet, he laughs. He can teach us much about suffering and the ability to continue to believe and hope.
The more important part of the stories, however, is the part that should make us scream for change in the way we have dealt with this genocide and others like it. It's time to take faster action. When we have to wait until there are over 1000 stories to be heard (in order to decide if it is genocide), there's something VERY wrong with our process.
The author makes you feel like you've walked the sandy world in which he grew up. You feel as if you've ridden a camel, pushed a Land Rover out of a ditch, survived a beating and crossed borders illegally for the sake of human life. Why? Because he tells the story in very simple English, which makes you feel your hearing about it all from a child's mind. You connect with the story much as a child envisions she is in a traditional fairy tale. Very powerful!
The author ended his story by saying that he didn't think he stood a one percent chance of being saved from rearrest and possibly being traded back to the government of Sudan, which would likely kill him. Then he said of those odds, "for me, that was pretty good." Indeed, he was able to escape to work outside of the country and, among other things, write this book. I think we have to ask ourselves this: Are we going to give better odds to the people of Darfur and other such nations or are we only going to look at "past" holocausts like World War II and give the lip service "never again"?
Yes. This book has changed me.
I cannot recommend this book to you enough.
An easy entry into a hard subject April 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Written for a very general public, in a simple but moving style. Even for those who are relatively well-read regarding Darfur, there are insights - and ghastly details - which don't make it into the press. Very interesting to read how an individual who has lived through some of these horrors can assimilate them and nevertheless continue a sane life.
Eye Opener April 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is amazing! I knew the situation in Darfur was bad, but this narrative makes it more real. Some of the things that have happened over there are worse than unforgivable. I wish I could go over there and stop the horror right now, but I'll have to settle for raising awareness and other "small" things I have the power to do. I highly recommend this book. You should read it, then write to your congressmen, urging them to push the government into doing something more to stop this nightmare. There are men out there who I would no longer consider human because of the atrocities they have committed. It's time for them to be stopped!
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