Courtesy of Beaverdale Books

Review by Barb Palar

By Tracy Kidder

Random House Trade

5/4/2010

$16

284 pp

It’s the “All-Iowa Reads” book for 2012, and if all of the state’s readers would enjoy Pulitzer winner Tracy Kidder’s chronicle, we would be, at the very least, a more humble and grateful state. Not that you can get much more humble than Iowa. “Strength in What Remains” is an interesting book, to say the least — a harrowing journey into a tale we read about remotely as it unfolded across the globe.

The book’s hero, Deo (Deogratias or Latin for “thanks be to God”) escapes war-torn Burundi in 1994 when he is about halfway through medical school. He arrives in New York City with $200 in his pocket and can speak no English. He endures the humiliation of delivering groceries for $15 a day and sleeping in Central Park because it beats the living conditions of a temporary shelter he discovers shortly after arriving.

We follow Deo through his struggles in New York including his acceptance to Columbia University with the help of several generous benefactors. But just as readers begin to relax and see hope for him, the author tears us back to Deo’s tortured life he lived just before leaving his home country, where Hutu and Tutsi are slaughtering each other. At the end of the book, readers are introduced to Kidder himself, who befriends Deo after he has finished medical school and returned to Burundi to open a clinic. Kidder’s deep admiration for Deo is woven throughout “Strength in What Remains,” but it doesn’t prevent the author from pointing out the missteps along with the triumphs. Read this book, Iowa. CV