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BookBrowse Reviews Slave by Mende Nazer, Damien Lewis

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Slave by Mende Nazer, Damien Lewis

Slave

My True Story

by Mende Nazer, Damien Lewis
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (5):
  • Readers' Rating (20):
  • First Published:
  • Jan 1, 2004, 368 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Jun 2005, 352 pages
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BookBrowse:


A shocking true story of contemporary slavery
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From the book jacket: A shocking true story of contemporary slavery: a young girl, snatched from her tribal village in Africa, survives enslavement in Sudan and London before making a courageous escape to freedom.

Comment:
If you thought that slavery ended in 1865 - think again.  Slave tells the true story of Mende, who was captured in a raid on her Nuba village and sold into slavery in Sudan. This, and another recent book, Escape from Slavery: The True Story of My Ten Years in Captivity and My Journey to Freedom in America by Francis Bok (published in late 2003), are must reads because they tell of slavery happening today, this minute, in Sudan (where slaves change hands for $150)

Mende Nazer's story only came to light because she was brave enough to escape while working for a Sudanese diplomat in London and, after a long and ridiculous battle with British officialdom to prove her refugee status, has been allowed to become resident. Francis Bok escaped from the Sudan to Cairo where he persevered through prison and refugee camps for three years before being granted passage to America. Both Bok and Nazer are vocal in speaking out about their experiences and are anti-slavery activists because as Nazer writes "I want all the others who are still in slavery and misery to be set free....how can I really feel free, when I know that they all remain enslaved.'

The one thing I felt missing from the hardcover edition of Slave was a resource for further information, such as links to anti-slavery websites and information on other countries that still allow (or turn a blind eye to) slavery. If you want to know more about modern day slavery try iAbolish.com, and to learn more about Sudan visit the CIA's World Factbook.

This review first ran in the June 15, 2005 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.

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Read-Alikes

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If you liked Slave, try these:

  • Philida jacket

    Philida

    by André Brink

    Published 2013

    About This book

    In Philida, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, André Brink—"one of South Africa's greatest novelists" (The Telegraph)—gives us his most powerful novel yet; the truly unforgettable story of a female slave, and her fierce determination to survive and to be free.

  • A Crime So Monstrous jacket

    A Crime So Monstrous

    by E. Benjamin Skinner

    Published 2009

    About This book

    To be a moral witness is perhaps the highest calling of journalism, and in this unforgettable, highly readable account of contemporary slavery, author Benjamin Skinner travels around the globe to personally tell stories that need to be told -- and heard.

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