tirsit

I read the book with mixed emotions; I had been through fear, sadness, anger, and happiness.

My first appreciation goes to Adel's skill of selecting the support team, who have different disciplines that helped him to make the book readable, interesting, and engaging.

The story revolves around different individuals who have negatively and positively affected his life journey throughout his childhood and teenage lifetime. He was able to entertain their characters and react accordingly. On the other hand, I admire his innate ability to handle individuals, especially those who have a positive personality and are ready to help him, like Banser, and made them decisive in his life destiny.

In this book, we can see noble individuals who have strongly shown their support and concerns for Adel in his childhood and teenage years which made him the person he is today.

The generation of Ethiopians in the 60s and 70s, were willing to lend their hands to those who need money, shelter, food, and any necessities, without asking the person from which tribe and ethnicity she/he belongs, only they need to know that she/he is human, tama aliantiha’ min!

I have very great respect and admiration for Adel for his courage, openness, generosity, and kindness to reveal the true painful life experiences he faced throughout his childhood and teenage years’ time. He knew that at least the next generation would learn from it, and they will realize it.

I found the book as an eye opener for those who have similar life paths but due to their shyness and losing courage to write their true-life history.

In general, the book has a great chance of molding people in their roles and how they should behave and act before things are out of their control.

In readers’ point of view, the story reminds us of some individuals who had an impact in one way or another in our life.

The story can be used as teaching material to inspire children who are stuck and still complaining about not having parents or any other helping hands to make them successful.  In most cases shifting the blame to others is common instead of finding other ways to overcome the challenges.

I loved it and recommend it to others to read!

A rare coincidence!, I would like to share with you my encounter with Adel's story and my experience.

Recently, individuals who read Adel's first book contacted me to ask if the bar he referenced in his memoir was owned by my parents (based on the description and location).  In his first book, To Have Nothing, Adel mentioned that he argued with his aunt, and he ran away when he was 10-year-old. He then started working as a shoeshine boy. During that period, he stated that he spent almost three weeks at a local bar.  These individuals went on to link me up with Adel over the phone so that we can verify, if in fact, the Bar (Tag Bet as we call it in the Amharic language), was my parents or not.

During my conversation with Adel, after 50 years, he vividly described to me the place, the furniture, my parents, and the three children who once lived in the same vicinity.  He also mentioned to me that in 2010, Adel tried to find the owner of this local bar (Tag Bet) if they were alive or if there are any of their descendants who were living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Unfortunately, he found no one.

I happened to be one of the three children who lived in the same house at that time.  Lo and behold, it was our house, owned and run by my parents!  It was a surprise for me!

One can say, in comparison to others mentioned in his book, that my parents' support for him could be considered a drop in the ocean.  However, it was important enough for him to remember and mention it in his book.  Here I am, without any prior knowledge of this book, perhaps pure chance, my family and I became part of this astonishing childhood and teenage life history. 

Using this opportunity, I would like to thank my late parents for being kind enough to allow that 10 years old boy to stay in our house (as he was sleeping on a street corner inside a sewer concrete). If not, things would have not been the same as we cherish now.

 Fifty years later, Adel and I reminisced about the things that took place at that time. I thought it was worth sharing it as a story on its own.

 The book is astonishingly written to reveal the story of Adel's real painful life experiences he had been through, and how he could survive and prove himself to be somebody; From Nothing To Everything.

This true life experience journey made by the Author has proved to me how someone can definitely go through his life without being loved and protected by her/his parents or any one close relatives. Regardless of the changes that occurred in her/his psychological and physical impact. No matter what the journey is unstable and full of difficulties: “God Bless the Child Who’s Got His own”.