This was an interesting look at two cultures that I knew very little about. Hard to envision this happening in the last 50 to 60 years. The author draws you into his emotional journey. Looking forward to reading the next chapter in the author’s story!

It was well written and captured the feelings of a young boy living in a life we cannot even imagine. The attention to detail was so captivating and the emotion was heart-wrenching. What an amazing story to be able to tell. So incredible that he began to write things down at such a young age, almost knowing that he would use those journals to write his story at a later date.

I was able to read the Advance Readers Copy (ARC) and I found myself engrossed with Adel's journey through his family turmoil, political upheaval, and personal growth. Adel's story was so vivid, expansive, and filled with modern history I found myself wanting to see his story told in a movie or short series format. Having seen many other biographical journeys written and explored through this means, Adel's story is certainly worthy of the same treatment. Well worth reading!

This beautifully written book about a young man’s journey takes us on a time capsule through one of the most complex periods of Ethiopian history. This is a story of survival and resilience. I was transported into the pain and hardships I faced as a young person fighting for freedom under one of the most brutal dictatorships my country has ever seen. This book took transported me in ways that I will forever be grateful for. Captivating, intimate, and raw. A recommended read to all!

This is a very compelling and emotional story of a child’s journey of growing up in Ethiopia while enduring unimaginable hardships. There are many moments of inspiration, shock, and humour to keep you on the edge of your seat and to pull on your heartstrings for the challenges he had to endure. Although based on his life, there is also an Ethiopian lesson in culture, history, religion, and family dynamics. I can’t wait to read the next two books of this trilogy to follow Adel’s intriguing story.

I found it to be an amazing tale of resilience! Adel suffered many hardships but kept fighting for freedom, true connections, and a better life for himself.  His perseverance in the face of loss and abandonment is truly moving and the humorous anecdotes throughout the book kept it light and easy to read.  I found some of the educational parts of the book distracted from the main story, but overall this was an incredible book and well worth the read!

I found this book to be very informative which helped me to understand a culture and history I knew very little if anything about. Overall, I found this book an easy read as it flowed well. I wouldn't normally pick this type of book to read so I was pleasantly surprised at how interesting I found it. It was hard to put down at times. To summarize I found the story to be extremely inspirational and compelling. It revealed that despite all the trauma suffered in his life, he was able to escape and move on in hopes of a better life through perseverance and education. If you are looking for a good book to read, I highly recommend this one!

I started reading Adel's books around midnight to read a few pages before going to bed. It's such a great book, hard to put down and I ended up going to bed at 3 o’clock. He articulated the book so well in his true colour to the point I can hear his voice while reading it. Adel reveals his extraordinary life pathway by divulging stories of his fascinating travels and unique childhood including the risks he took, his fears, blunders along the road, losses, victories, and disappointments as well as griefs.Adel is not what one would call the "funny" or “nice” person one might meet in their lifetime. However, he is a person with a lot of knowledge and experience in many areas. Talking to Adel for an hour is the same as reading 10 books in different genres while entertaining. I was always curious how he ended up with a very sharp mind while living in the western world where life is different from the east where he’s originally from. I always wondered, was it the books that he read or his life experience? I finally got my answers from his book which helped me to take a slice of his full pie in his first volume. If you ever wondered who Adel really is and what he was really like and how he got here, this book will tell you. The book leaves very little if any.Adel was not a regular “Chu Chi” (kid). His story is inspiring and an excellent example of anyone who can get wherever they want, it doesn’t matter where they come from. As an Ethiopian, I can imagine how hard the society's beliefs and cultures toward a mixed person in a race as well as religion is, didn’t make it easy for him. Adel speaks the untold story of many people who had to go through the same thing as he did and decided not even to think about it again. Adel opened different boxes that many people don’t have the courage to.I can’t wait for the next two editions!

This book is written unevenly and has a slow start. But it does pick up and rewards the reader with a tale that is quite stirring. Family infighting mixed with religious and racial bigotry made Adele's life precarious almost from the very start. Living on the streets and then being forced into political detention could have ended his life at any time. However, his innate gifts and some well-timed help from friends and relatives allowed him to come through it all.

The book has English, Amharic (Ethiopian), and Arabic versions and I'm sure the three different audiences will have extremely different reactions to the story. The book discusses mixed marriages, sex between persons of vastly different ages, and the rights -or lack thereof- of women and children. I had a quite different reaction to Adele's when it came to how his father, mother, and other family members treated him.

An enthralling story about a boy in a land far far away. A middle eastern/Arabian history lesson on times we can hardly conceive. A cultural education on familial hierarchy, politics, religion, and language. You must have a spirit that burns, a drive to survive, and a sprinkle of luck ‘to have nothing and yet make things possible.

The author takes you on a highly personal and powerful retelling of his childhood years. At times you feel fear and pain and isolation and it makes you wonder what your own reaction would have been. There’s no way to know, but t cheer on the boy. Looking forward to the two next books!

This is a true story of survival. I was absolutely fascinated reading about the incredibly tough situations Adel found himself in as a young boy. I was constantly impressed with the choices he made and how he dealt with these experiences.

This book is an eye-opening window into Ethiopian society. It was so interesting to gain a deeper understanding of the customs and religions that influence a society which helped me understand life outside of North America. I can’t wait to read the next two books!

It’s one of the best inspirational books that I read. I heard so many people complain about their tough childhood. From Adel, nobody has any reason to blame their childhood because they don’t have the life they wanted. An 8 years old boy was abandoned by an irresponsible adult with no food, no money even no shoes then turned out a noble man. From Adel’s story, we don’t have any excuses for our failures. I passed the book to my son. And I hope every young person should read it! Strong recommend it to young people! Very touching story.

Much like his life story, it takes a few chapters to really find the flow in his writing, but when he does, the heartfelt landscape we are allowed to witness is simply amazing. With more than a healthy dose of ego for self (which you later learn is the deep, balanced kind, that can only come from endless adversity during youth), and an otherwise minimally shared culture, you see the author's passionate quest to learn about the details of his life; to find his "why", to make his peace, his way. There is a lot to take in here and I believe that you too will find it worth your while. Looking forward to Book Two.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Written in his own voice, Adel tells the story of his early life and the struggles he endured navigating an unimaginably difficult childhood. It was sprinkled with historical information, touching memories, and sometimes heartbreaking recollections of how he was treated as a child. Tiny bits of this story seems to be written in the voice of Adel as a young child or teenager. I found a special sensitivity in the different voices telling their parts of the story. It was a little disjointed in the beginning but as the book progressed it began to flow more easily. I was certainly left wanting to hear more and I look forward to volumes two and three.

I love the way this book is written! It is full of honesty and compassion. The author describes his childhood experiences first through the lens of a child and then each experience is reflected upon with the maturity of age. He perfectly captures the genuine curiosity and logical conclusions that a child of those ages would come to when faced with these extraordinary life events.

I like that I didn’t need to know anything about Ethiopia. There is a great deal of detail about the culture, religion, and political history of Ethiopia but these details are masterfully woven throughout the journey of this boy bringing context and revealing a deep, thoughtful understanding of the complexities of the human experience.

As a mother myself, I was really drawn to the heartfelt relationships he had with all the adults in his life. It’s amazing that a person could go through what he did and still have such a positive outlook on life. An excellent read!

The book titled “To have nothing”, written by Adel Ben Harhara, is one I found very fascinating and did not stop reading until I finished it.
 
The storytelling and how it drew me into the writer’s childhood is something I loved. His mother was a fifteen-year-old girl and his father was a fifty-year-old retired British soldier who became a businessman. Reading about the struggles around his parents’ situation tugged at my heart. The author becoming a successful professional despite his childhood struggles is a story that everyone should read about.
 
The writer was born and raised in Ethiopia until the age of fifteen when he left for south Yemen has written a wonderful book to share his very unique birth, growth and later life in North America. His birth is unique because his mother was not only an Orthodox Christen and underage when she gave birth without marriage and from an Arab which in all circumstances wasn’t accepted not only in those days but to some extent in contemporary Ethiopian Orthodox culture. One of the best things the author did when he was writing this book is that he put together a team of experts who have deep knowledge of the Ethiopian, Arab, and North American languages and culture. That made this book very readable and attractive.
 
After reading the book, I without that Adel is one of the few lucky children who became successful after being born in such difficult circumstances including losing his father at a very young age. A striking fact about this book is not only the effort Adel put into writing it but also that the proceeds from the sales would go to orphans in Ethiopia and Yemen.
 
The other unique thing about the writer is that he got the opportunity to learn about the three most important Abrahamic religions in the world. Not only these, he was also thought to be an Atheist through Marxist Leninist ideology.
 
The writer has also understood the importance of humour in both Ethiopian and Yemeni cultures and has wove in to the stories in the book. Further, the writer mentioned that the Ge’ez language was confined to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, but history bookshoww that it was publicly spoken until such time that the church discouraged the public to use it because of its use in holy placess.

This forced the public to develop another language called Amharic which was born out of Ge’ez. Today Ge’ez is not only thought at universities in Ethiopia but also in Germany and Canada.

To Have Nothing is a moving book that took me into a part of the world utterly unknown to myself. What I enjoyed most about it was the fact that Adel not only wrote his own story but supported the insight of the reader with historical and religious facts/knowledge. I found the beginning a little choppy. Stay with it though, as it will start to flow as you read on. While Adel’s childhood was certainly a turbulent one, one that had him thrown from ‘riches to rags’, in the end, it was always family and friends/relations of his father who helped him, who feed and clothed and always, always educated him well. Without them, he would truly have ended up with NOTHING. A story of loss and pain. A story that celebrates resiliency and wanting to have a better life. A book that demonstrates the importance of education and how education will open doors and set you free.

Adel Ben-Harhara has an amazing story to tell about the early years of his life in Ethiopia, made possible through the journals he kept throughout the years. It's as much about the man as it is about the socioeconomic, political, religious, and cultural environment and the interpersonal connections that he forged along the way. I found it an educational, entertaining, and at times heartbreaking read about Adel's trials and tribulations. The book also contains appendices with supplemental information about Ethiopia including some recent observations from the author. This is book one of three, and there is a preview of the other books included that cover the author's life that followed in North Yemen and then North America. Oh, and the title, which I initially found puzzling, is fully explained in the book!

This is the first in a series. Ben-Harhara faces his past in a man versus himself documentary. He reconnects with his roots, taking us on a detailed passage exploring geography, race, language, culture, and religion. He embraces vulnerability and shares his healing journey by documenting what it took for him to not only survive but thrive. Can’t wait for the next one to be released!