Summary and Reviews of Another Day In Paradise by Carol Bergman

Media Reviews

Onefortytwo.com If you have ever wondered about the work of a Peace Corps volunteer, or the stories of those affected by natural disaster or war, use Another Day in Paradise as your starting point; it is well worth the read.

Time Magazine - Maryann Bird Bergman set out to produce a book of conventional reportage. But when she read British-born nurse Iain Levine's previously unpublished stories about his 20 years doing humanitarian work in India, Sudan and Mozambique, Bergman realized that aid workers could tell their tales better than she could. Her book became a collection of lived experiences, and is richer for it... Bergman's eclectic compilation is blessed with an eloquent forward by John Le Carré who salutes 'those brave enough to visit life's hells on foot instead of on the television screen'.

The Independent (UK newspaper) Another Day In Paradise brings together front-line testimony from Afghanistan, Sudan, Rwanda, Somalia, Bosnia and the Gaza Strip - places where th best and the worst of humanity is on display - gathered by the journalist Carol Bergman , herself a child of refugees from genocide. John le Carre's foreword pays tribute to a group of people 'self-humbling in the face of monstrous disaster' who suppress 'useless pity in favour of doing something practical'

The Spectator (UK) - Caroline Moorehead This anthology is really a celebration of the newish breed of international aid workers, the doctors, nurses, nutritionists, logisticians and engineers, who build camps, dispense food, bring water, negotiate truces, interview prisoners and curb looters on behalf of such organisations as Oxfam, Medecins san Frontieres and the International Rescue Committee.... it is hard not to come away from [this] anthology not just admiring her contributors but intrigued by the nuances of feeling that they bring to their work.

The Globe and Mail (Canada) Their common theme is that, despite the growing dangers to front-line workers, the world cannot neglect the victims of war and famine, and must not be terrorized into abandoning them. The timing of the book launch couldn't be more appropriate.

America Magazine - Claire Schaeffer-Duffy Another Day in Paradise is, ironically, a record of life lived in the corners of hell. While the cruelties described are immense, so too are the human resilience and courage documented in the book's pages. We need, especially now, to read these descriptive narratives from the people who risk their lives on the ground while politicians and diplomats negotiate in velvet-curtained rooms. Their observations will help clear our heads of any delusions about war being merely a policy option with some collateral damage. More important, the examples of practical compassion recorded in Another Day in Paradise remind us of a truth about ourselves that is often lost when killing becomes commonplace Human beings were made to nourish and preserve life.

 From the Foreword by John le Carré What is it that makes this anthology of personal experience in the field so particularly moving? Is it the courage and dedication of the contributors? To a point. Is it their self-humbling in the face of monstrous disaster? That too. But for my money, it is their self-control. It's their suppression of useless pity in favor of doing something practical. It's their determination, in the foulest conditions that man and nature can dream up between them, to make human decency work rather than weep; to do whatever they can, again and again, knowing it can never be enough.

 Madame Sadako Ogata,author of The Man Who Tried to Save the World Gives the reader a good sense of the challenges involved [in humanitarian work]--and why the effort matters.

 Roy Offenheiser, President, Oxfam America Humanitarian workers define courage in the 21st century...This book gives voice to their stories, to their ability to survive in the face of death, to their humanity to one another and to those they seek to serve.

 Scott Anderson, author, The Man Who Tried to Save the World In this extraordinarily powerful collection, we hear in the humanitarian workers' own words their testimonials of life and death, of compassion and simple courage, tales which should both haunt and inspire us.