Popular Eritrea Books

15+ [Hand Picked] Popular Books On Eritrea

Discover the list of some best books written on Eritrea by popular award winning authors. These book on topic Eritrea highly popular among the readers worldwide.

4.5/5

I Didn't Do It for You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation by Michela Wrong

Scarred by decades of conflict and occupation, the craggy African nation of Eritrea has weathered the world's longest-running guerrilla war. The dogged determination that secured victory against Ethiopia, its giant neighbor, is woven into the national psyche, the product of cynical foreign interventions. Fascist Italy wanted Eritrea as the springboard for a new, racially p Scarred by decades of conflict and occupation, the craggy African nation of Eritrea has weathered the world's longest-running guerrilla war. The dogged determination that secured victory against Ethiopia, its giant neighbor, is woven into the national psyche, the product of cynical foreign interventions. Fascist Italy wanted Eritrea as the springboard for a new, racially pure Roman empire; Britain sold off its industry for scrap; the United States needed a base for its state-of-the-art spy station; and the Soviet Union used it as a pawn in a proxy war. In I Didn't Do It for You, Michela Wrong reveals the breathtaking abuses this tiny nation has suffered and, with a sharp eye for detail and a taste for the incongruous, tells the story of colonialism itself and how international power politics can play havoc with a country's destiny.

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5/5

The Consequences of Love by Sulaiman Addonia

Naser is a young African immigrant who works the carwash in downtown Jeddah. The long, hot summer has arrived and his friends have left the city. Naser spends his time off sitting beneath the palm tree outside his flat, dreaming of Egyptian actresses, and keeping out of the way of the religious police.

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3.7/5

My Fathers' Daughter by Hannah Pool

In 1974 Hannah Pool was adopted from an orphanage in Eritrea and brought to England by her white adoptive father. She grew up unable to imagine what it must be like to look into the eyes of a blood relative until one day a letter arrived from a brother she never knew she had. Not knowing what to do with the letter, Hannah hid it away. But she was unable to forget it, and t In 1974 Hannah Pool was adopted from an orphanage in Eritrea and brought to England by her white adoptive father. She grew up unable to imagine what it must be like to look into the eyes of a blood relative until one day a letter arrived from a brother she never knew she had. Not knowing what to do with the letter, Hannah hid it away. But she was unable to forget it, and ten years later she finally decided to track down her surviving Eritrean family and embarked upon a journey that would take her far from the comfort zone of her metropolitan lifestye to confront the poverty and oppression of a life that could so easily have been her own.

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3.7/5

Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed

For fans of Half of a Yellow Sun, a stunning novel set in 1930s Somalia spanning a decade of war and upheaval, all seen through the eyes of a small boy alone in the world. Aden, Yemen, 1935; a city vibrant, alive, and full of hidden dangers. And home to Jama, a ten year-old boy. But then his mother dies unexpectedly and he finds himself alone in the world. Jama is forced hom For fans of Half of a Yellow Sun, a stunning novel set in 1930s Somalia spanning a decade of war and upheaval, all seen through the eyes of a small boy alone in the world. Aden, Yemen, 1935; a city vibrant, alive, and full of hidden dangers. And home to Jama, a ten year-old boy. But then his mother dies unexpectedly and he finds himself alone in the world. Jama is forced home to his native Somalia, the land of his nomadic ancestors. War is on the horizon and the fascist Italian forces who control parts of East Africa are preparing for battle. Yet Jama cannot rest until he discovers whether his father, who has been absent from his life since he was a baby, is alive somewhere. And so begins an epic journey which will take Jama north through Djibouti, war-torn Eritrea and Sudan, to Egypt. And from there, aboard a ship transporting Jewish refugees just released from German concentration camps, across the seas to Britain and freedom. This story of one boy's long walk to freedom is also the story of how the Second World War affected Africa and its people; a story of displacement and family.

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4.6/5

The Mangrove Tree: Planting Trees to Feed Families by Susan L. Roth , Cindy Trumbore

For a long time, the people of Hargigo, a village in the tiny African country of Eritrea, were living without enough food for themselves and their animals. The families were hungry, and their goats and sheep were hungry too. Then along came a scientist, Dr. Gordon Sato, who helped change their lives for the better. And it all started with some special trees. These are the t For a long time, the people of Hargigo, a village in the tiny African country of Eritrea, were living without enough food for themselves and their animals. The families were hungry, and their goats and sheep were hungry too. Then along came a scientist, Dr. Gordon Sato, who helped change their lives for the better. And it all started with some special trees. These are the trees, Mangrove trees, That were planted by the sea. With alternating verse and prose passages, The Mangrove Tree invites readers to discover how Dr. Sato's mangrove tree-planting project transformed an impoverished village into a self-sufficient community. This fascinating story is a celebration of creativity, hard work--and all those mangrove trees that were planted by the sea!

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3.2/5

Heart of Fire: One Girl's Extraordinary Journey from Child Soldier to Soul Singer by Senait G. Mehari , Christine Lo (Translator)

An unwanted baby, her mother packs her inside a suitcase, closes the lid, puts the suitcase in a cupboard and goes away. Despite all the tortures and cruelties, this is a moving testimony of a woman who started from the very bottom of society but who is aiming for the very top.

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4.5/5

Ciao Asmara by Justin Hill

Asmara is the capital of Eritrea - a surreally Italian city at the centre of an ex-Italian colony that has been at war with its neighbour, Ethiopia (who claims sovereignty over Eritrea), for over ten years. Amidst broken palaces (built by the late Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie), nomadic desert encampments and war-torn towns, Justin Hill found a god-fearing people remark Asmara is the capital of Eritrea - a surreally Italian city at the centre of an ex-Italian colony that has been at war with its neighbour, Ethiopia (who claims sovereignty over Eritrea), for over ten years. Amidst broken palaces (built by the late Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie), nomadic desert encampments and war-torn towns, Justin Hill found a god-fearing people remarkably resistant to everything fate has thrown at them. This book is a tribute to their resilience.

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4.5/5

To Asmara by Thomas Keneally

This national bestseller by the highly-acclaimed author of "Schindler's List" tells the deeply moving and spellbinding story of an alienated Australian journalist's soul-searching journey across a war-torn Africa.

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4.2/5

تيتانيكات أفريقية by Abu Bakr Khaal , أبو بكر حامد كهال

من إرتريا وأثيوبيا والسودان والصومال وغانا وليبيريا، ومن كافّة أنحاء القارة المنهوبة المفقرة، مهاجرون يجمعهم السماسرة في مراكب لا تصلح للإبحار ويرسلونهم إلى قعر البحر. "توفّي اثنان من الركّاب بفعل مرض مفاجئ. ظلّت جثّتاهما فوق سطح المركب حتى مساء اليوم السابع. ومع اليأس من عمل المحرّك وعدم ظهور أي نجدة، رموهما في الماء. في الصباح، ظهرتا طافيتين بجوار المركب. السحب السوداء الت من إرتريا وأثيوبيا والسودان والصومال وغانا وليبيريا، ومن كافّة أنحاء القارة المنهوبة المفقرة، مهاجرون يجمعهم السماسرة في مراكب لا تصلح للإبحار ويرسلونهم إلى قعر البحر. "توفّي اثنان من الركّاب بفعل مرض مفاجئ. ظلّت جثّتاهما فوق سطح المركب حتى مساء اليوم السابع. ومع اليأس من عمل المحرّك وعدم ظهور أي نجدة، رموهما في الماء. في الصباح، ظهرتا طافيتين بجوار المركب. السحب السوداء التي تجمّعت جلبت معها العواصف والأمواج التي حاصرت المركب. ظلّت تضربه بلا هوادة على مدار الساعة، وكان المطر يحلب نفسه بلا تعب. كما إن الثغرة استيقظت وصارت تدفع المياه بعنف نحو الداخل رغم محاولات مالوك لوقفها. في اليوم الثامن عشر، وقبل غرق المركب بأربعة أيام، بدأ العطش والجوع يحصد الضحايا. سقط منذ نهار الأمس وحتى هذا الصباح المكفهرّ عشرون شخصاً ظلّوا يصارعون للبقاء. لكن مع شروق الشمس لفظوا أنفاسهم تباعاً." أبوبكر حامد كهال روائي أرتيري مقيم في ليبيا. كان عضواً في "جبهة تحرير ارتيريا" لسنوات عديدة وشارك في معارك التحرير ضدّ الاحتلال الإثيوبي. له روايتان "رائحة السلاح" و"بركنتيا: أرض المرأة الحكيمة".

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3.4/5

Dictatorland: The Men Who Stole Africa by Paul Kenyon

The dictator who grew so rich on his country's cocoa crop that he built a 35-storey-high basilica in the jungles of the Ivory Coast. The austere, incorruptible leader who has shut Eritrea off from the world in a permanent state of war and conscripted every adult into the armed forces. In Equatorial Guinea, the paranoid despot who thought Hitler was the saviour of Africa an The dictator who grew so rich on his country's cocoa crop that he built a 35-storey-high basilica in the jungles of the Ivory Coast. The austere, incorruptible leader who has shut Eritrea off from the world in a permanent state of war and conscripted every adult into the armed forces. In Equatorial Guinea, the paranoid despot who thought Hitler was the saviour of Africa and waged a relentless campaign of terror against his own people. The Libyan army officer who authored a new work of political philosophy, The Green Book, and lived in a tent with a harem of female soldiers, running his country like a mafia family business. And behind these almost incredible stories of fantastic violence and excess lie the dark secrets of Western greed and complicity, the insatiable taste for chocolate, oil, diamonds and gold that has encouraged dictators to rule with an iron hand, siphoning off their share of the action into mansions in Paris and banks in Zurich and keeping their people in dire poverty.

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3.9/5

Gratitude in Low Voices: A Memoir by Dawit Gebremichael Habte

Our bodies started shaking from the cold and shock, yet we were so terrified of being caught that we had to keep our teeth clenched together to keep them from chattering; we could not allow ourselves to make any sound. Whenever we heard a sound or detected motion, we would stare in that direction, even though we could see nothing but dark. Dawit Gebremichael Habte fled his Our bodies started shaking from the cold and shock, yet we were so terrified of being caught that we had to keep our teeth clenched together to keep them from chattering; we could not allow ourselves to make any sound. Whenever we heard a sound or detected motion, we would stare in that direction, even though we could see nothing but dark. Dawit Gebremichael Habte fled his homeland of Eritrea as a teenager. In the midst of the ongoing Eritrean-Ethiopian war, Dawit and his sisters crossed illegally into Kenya. Without their parents or documents to help their passage, they experienced the abuse and neglect known by so many refugees around the world. But Dawit refused to give up. He stayed resilient and positive. Journeying to the United States under asylum and still a boy Dawit found a new purpose in an unfamiliar land. Against impossible odds, he studied hard and was accepted to Johns Hopkins University, eventually landing a job as a software engineer at Bloomberg. After a few years, with the support of Michael Bloomberg himself, Dawit returned to his homeland to offer business opportunities for other Eritreans. Dawit found a way to help his ancestral land emerge from thirty years of debilitating war. Gratitude in Low Voices is about how one man was marginalized, but how compassion and love never abandoned him. It s about learning how to care for family, and how to honor those who help the helpless. The life of a refugee is hard, and the lives of those in war-torn lands are harder still. This account reminds us that hope is not lost. This humble story of Dawit s life stands out in a time when we look at immigrants as never before a book that illuminates our decisions to help or to turn away those who land on our doorstep, and the gratitude that surely follows any act of compassion."

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4.8/5

Against All Odds: A Chronicle of the Eritrean Revolution with a New Afterword on the Postwar Transition by Dan Connell

Against All Odds is the firsthand account of Eritrea's epic 30-year struggle for independence and social justice. With almost no outside support, Eritrean nationalist brought successive U.S.- and Soviet-backed Ethiopian governments to their knees. At the same time, they worked to liberate women, workers and peasant farmers from centuries of grinding poverty, chronic hunger Against All Odds is the firsthand account of Eritrea's epic 30-year struggle for independence and social justice. With almost no outside support, Eritrean nationalist brought successive U.S.- and Soviet-backed Ethiopian governments to their knees. At the same time, they worked to liberate women, workers and peasant farmers from centuries of grinding poverty, chronic hunger and numbing oppression. Connell argues that it was the blending of a social revolution with political objectives that enabled this uniquely self-reliant liberation front to weld Eritrea's fractious society -- half Christian, half Muslim, from nine ethnic groups m into one of the most remarkable fighting forces in modern history. In a new Afterword, he describes their efforts to translate wartime values and experience into sustainable strategies for developing the new country.

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4.6/5

The Conscript: A Novel of Libya’s Anticolonial War by Gebreyesus Hailu , Ghirmai Negash (Translator) , Laura Chrisman (Introduction)

Eloquent and thought-provoking, this classic novel by the Eritrean novelist Gebreyesus Hailu, written in Tigrinya in 1927 and published in 1950, is one of the earliest novels written in an African language and will have a major impact on the reception and critical appraisal of African literature. The Conscript depicts, with irony and controlled anger, the staggering experie Eloquent and thought-provoking, this classic novel by the Eritrean novelist Gebreyesus Hailu, written in Tigrinya in 1927 and published in 1950, is one of the earliest novels written in an African language and will have a major impact on the reception and critical appraisal of African literature. The Conscript depicts, with irony and controlled anger, the staggering experiences of the Eritrean ascari, soldiers conscripted to fight in Libya by the Italian colonial army against the nationalist Libyan forces fighting for their freedom from Italy’s colonial rule. Anticipating midcentury thinkers Frantz Fanon and Aimé Césaire, Hailu paints a devastating portrait of Italian colonialism. Some of the most poignant passages of the novel include the awakening of the novel’s hero, Tuquabo, to his ironic predicament of being both under colonial rule and the instrument of suppressing the colonized Libyans. The novel’s remarkable descriptions of the battlefield awe the reader with mesmerizing images, both disturbing and tender, of the Libyan landscape—with its vast desert sands, oases, horsemen, foot soldiers, and the brutalities of war—uncannily recalled in the satellite images that were brought to the homes of millions of viewers around the globe in 2011, during the country’s uprising against its former leader, Colonel Gaddafi.

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3.8/5

Surrender or Starve: Travels in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, and Eritrea by Robert D. Kaplan

Robert D. Kaplan is one of our leading international journalists, someone who can explain the most complicated and volatile regions and show why they’re relevant to our world. In Surrender or Starve, Kaplan illuminates the fault lines in the Horn of Africa, which is emerging as a crucial region for America’s ongoing war on terrorism. Reporting from Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia Robert D. Kaplan is one of our leading international journalists, someone who can explain the most complicated and volatile regions and show why they’re relevant to our world. In Surrender or Starve, Kaplan illuminates the fault lines in the Horn of Africa, which is emerging as a crucial region for America’s ongoing war on terrorism. Reporting from Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Eritrea, Kaplan examines the factors behind the famine that ravaged the region in the 1980s, exploring the ethnic, religious, and class conflicts that are crucial for understanding the region today. He offers a new foreword and afterword that show how the nations have developed since the famine, and why this region will only grow more important to the United States. Wielding his trademark ability to blend on-the-ground reporting and cogent analysis, Robert D. Kaplan introduces us to a fascinating part of the world, one that it would behoove all of us to know more about.

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3.4/5

The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander

In The Light of the World, Elizabeth Alexander finds herself at an existential crossroads after the sudden death of her husband. Channeling her poetic sensibilities into a rich, lucid prose, Alexander tells a love story that is, itself, a story of loss. As she reflects on the beauty of her married life, the trauma resulting from her husband's death, and the solace found in In The Light of the World, Elizabeth Alexander finds herself at an existential crossroads after the sudden death of her husband. Channeling her poetic sensibilities into a rich, lucid prose, Alexander tells a love story that is, itself, a story of loss. As she reflects on the beauty of her married life, the trauma resulting from her husband's death, and the solace found in caring for her two teenage sons, Alexander universalizes a very personal quest for meaning and acceptance in the wake of loss. The Light of the World is at once an endlessly compelling memoir and a deeply felt meditation on the blessings of love, family, art, and community. It is also a lyrical celebration of a life well-lived and a paean to the priceless gift of human companionship. For those who have loved and lost, or for anyone who cares what matters most, The Light of the World is required reading.

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