Book giveaway for Day 12: (fiction) Scared by Tom Davis
Here are the rules to enter:
A. Post a comment answering a random question with that day's post.
Today's Question: This book is about a suffering people in Africa. I have no words to convey the pain of these people. No question for this one. Just post a comment indicating if you would like to be entered to win this book.
B. Include an email address where I can reach you if you are selected as the winner for that giveaway.
C. Enter on or before Feb. 27 for this book, the winner will be drawn Feb. 28.
D. Come back tomorrow for the next book!
TODAY'S BOOK GIVEAWAY
Description:
“As you see, Mr. Daniels, fear is a way of a life here,” Stuart Daniels’s driver tells him in Scared by Tom Davis. And that is in the safe part of Swaziland.
But Daniels knows all about fear from his last trip to Africa, the trip that made him a world-famous photographer and destroyed his life. His marriage is on the rocks, he’s drinking too much, and he has one last chance to save his job by going back to Africa to take pictures for British journalist Gordon Clandish who now lives in Swaziland.
Twelve-year-old Adanna is hungry daily, almost starving. Her father, a long- distance trucker, long ago left the family and all presume he is dead. Her mother is dying of AIDS. Much of the care of her younger brother and sister falls to her. After having a vision of an “Illuminated Man” who loves her and promises to bring her home after giving her a gift for her country, Adanna prays to the Illuminated Man when the terrors of her life surround her. Christian men like Pastor Walter and Tagoze, the chief’s brother, try to protect and provide for the starving children, unlike the average man of the area.
When Stuart meets with Gordon and some of his contacts, strange things begin to happen. At a church service he hears a voice telling him to feed His sheep. He sees dignity in a man dying of AIDS. But the greatest change in Stuart comes from meeting Adanna in the midst of her suffering. Their impact on each other affects not only themselves but Adanna’s whole community.
Based on true people and events which are fictionalized, Scared is a powerful story told in the voices of Adanna and Stuart. It is not a light, frothy story. It tells the importance of the one, as in the one lost sheep or coin, and the importance of the one who commits himself to helping others. It takes the reader into the heart of the AIDS crisis raging throughout much of Africa. Although he discusses the effect on adults, Davis concentrates on the children, the hunger, the lack of protection from male predators, the insecurity, the confusion, the lack of education, and the vastness of the devastation. He also shows people like Pastor Walter, based on a real person, who allows his own family to suffer some hunger so that other children might not starve.
My Thoughts:
A heart-wrenching story that brought me to tears. A must-read. The ability of Adanna to see hope in the midst of starving and loss and abuse is unbelievable. It is based on a true story, so you cannot separate your heart from the story because it rings true, as painful as it is to read. A great book of hope and faith being restored to Stuart through the life of Adanna.
To learn more about Tom Davis' work to help, visit his blog: http://tomdavis.typepad.com/
Book Bullets:
- My rating: 5 out of 5 stars plus a bonus star for being outstanding
- Genre: contempory fiction
- Themes: hope and faith in God in spite of hard times
- Part of a Series: yes
- Publication year: 2009
- Pages: 288
