belle

 In “To Have Nothing God Bless the Child Who’s Got His Own”, Adel Ben-Harhara’s first book of the three book memoir, I was transported back in time to a place that I am familiar with, Ethiopia. Like Adel, I traveled there in 2010. Yet his journey took me to a time and upbringing so different than what I experienced growing up in USA as a child (10 years older than Adel) during the period, 1962 – 1978, covered in book one of his memoir. True, his experience was often one of having nothing materially and nutritiously, but with what he did have, he ultimately made something with his life and is candid about it in this memoir. This memoir is a must-read for the person who is fascinated by the contrast, tensions, and collision of different religions, races, genders, ages, cultures, classes, national identities, and political ideologies. Adel experiences all of the above during his childhood years in Ethiopia. Join Adel as he relives and analyzes his life in Ethiopia: his relationship with a stern but often inebriated father who he barely remembers, a combo of women/mothers who nurtured him (sometimes only realizing it much later in life as he returned to them in anticipation of writing the memoir) each to their own abilities, and the many relatives and friends who supported him. Experience how each ingredient in his courses of life experiences and relationships, first in Ethiopia during this first book of his memoir, when mixed together turned out to be his recipe for a positive, resilient and successful life.