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Reviewing a memoir is tricky because you want to share enough information to allure readers to read the book without giving away too much. With that caveat, To Have Nothing, the first volume of Adel Ben-Harhara's three-volume memoir is one of the most captivating memoirs I have ever read. The writer is a perfect bullet-dodger who narrowly escaped from being aborted, forcibly separated from a young mother as a toddler, and went through a very turbulent childhood brought about by the sudden death of his relatively affluent father. He also faced complete abandonment by his guardian relative and later met the death squad at the infamous Derg era torture house – all before hitting age fifteen. The fact that he is mentally strong, more bookish, and erudite than most children his age has helped him overcome this perfect storm that came his way in his formative period.

The memoir's title reveals the book's central theme, which you won't get any clue about until you have read a third of the book when he hits the very bottom and is left with nothing - literally. It is a brutally honest account of growing up in poor, multi-racial, multi-cultural families and societies. Many people who grew up in the same revolutionary period in Ethiopia as I can relate to most of his stories.

Readers can learn from this very inspiring story of endurance that hardened the young boy who once upon a time "had nothing" to gradually become not only a successful world-class professional but also pushed himself to climb mountains and run over multiple Marathons. You can buy the book on Amazon.