They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: They True Story of Three Lost Boys From Sudan

THEY POURED FIRE ON US FROM THE SKY: THEY TRUE STORY OF THREE LOST BOYS FROM SUDAN: Deng, Deng, Ajak, Berstein: Public Affairs : June 2006: 311: NonFiction

Caught in the middle of an intense genocide in Sudan, thousands of children became homeless and parentless in the mid 1980's. In this novel three boys; Alepho, Benson, and Benjamin, tell their story of being exiled from their home in Sudan and forced to walk thousands of miles for refuge in Kenya, where even there they are starved, beaten, and separated from their family. It does have a bit of a happy ending when all three of the boys leave for America, but there was still a bit of melancholy in it for me as they were leaving what remained of their family and everything they'd ever known.

This was a truly heartbreaking read. We hear about/read so many tragic things that we sometimes become callus to suffering - this book absolutely put the horrific events taking place in Sudan back into very human terms. It is a remarkable story of survival and to me, a story about community.

BES