My Fathers' Daughter (Hardcover)

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Review
The extraordinary story of a British journalist who sought out her African birth family.Born in civil-war-torn Eritrea in 1974, Pool was adopted as an infant by an English academic teaching nearby at the University of Khartoum. The orphanage told him both her parents were dead, and he eventually brought the little girl to Manchester, England, where she enjoyed a middle-class upbringing and education. Fully integrated into her white stepfamily, the author learned she had blood relatives only in 1993, after Eritrea's liberation from Ethiopia, when the orphanage disclosed that her birth father was in fact alive. A few months later, she received a letter from an older brother she didn't know she had. Overwhelmed by this unexpected contact, Pool made excuses not to act on the letter for years. Finally, nearing 30 and a feature writer for the Guardian in London, she arranged to meet her Eritrean cousin, who revealed that her mother had died giving birth to her and the whole clan had been hoping to find its lost daughter for years. Pool subsequently embarked on a scary, revelatory journey in search of her roots. At the orphanage in the bustling city of Asmara, she was handed her birth file. Deep in the Eritrean countryside, she met for the first time her aged father and the many siblings who had been raised at home on the farm. These were intensely emotional gatherings, involving copious tears, strange customs and raw feelings. Relatives constantly scolded her for not speaking Tigrinya, the native language. Taken to the hut in the village where she was born, she was astonished and moved to meet her mother's sister. Having gone through life feeling that she never quite belonged, Pool envied her siblings and cousins their settled life with its "few certainties," despite the grievous poverty and lack of opportunities. Colloquial, frank and touching, her account grapples with conflicted feelings of rejection and identity.An honest, spellbinding account of a remarkable journey. (Kirkus Reviews)

Product Description
Hannah Pool was adopted from an orphanage in Eritrea in 1974 and came to England, via Sudan and Norway, with her white adoptive father six years later. Then a brother she never suspected she had wrote to her from Eritrea. But Hannah hid the letter away, and it is only now ten years after receiving it that she has decided to track down her surviving Eritrean family. Hannah Pool's search for her birth family is a journey which takes her far beyond her comfort zone and face to face with the harsh realities of a life that could so easily have been her own. Frank, intimate, funny and sometimes all too real, MY FATHERS' DAUGHTER is the story of one life, two families and two very different cultures.

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3 Reviews 5 star:  (3) 4 star:    (0) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   15 of 16 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars A Story of Adoption, 9 Sep 2005 By  cluricaune "cluricaune" (Co. Armagh, N. Ireland) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    Hannah Pool, a journalist for a British newspaper, was born in a small Eritrean town called Keren in 1974. Placed in an orphanage in Asmara, Eritrea's capital, shortly after her birth she grew up believing her mother had died in childbirth with her father dying shortly afterwards. When she was roughly six months old, malnourished and suffering from chicken pox, she was adopted by David Pool, a British academic, and his American wife, Marya. At the time, David was teaching at the University of Khartoum and Marya was doing voluntary work with some nuns. Marya died when Hannah was four and briefly went to stay with some friends in Norway before moving back to England with her dad. By the time she was twenty, David was lecturing at Manchester University, with Eritrean politics among his areas of expertise. When Eritrea won its independence from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, the guerrilla fighters he'd got to know in the 1970s had become government ministers. David was among the people invited over for the celebrations and, on impulse, went looking for the orphanage in Asmara. Not only was it still standing, it was still being run by the same nun - Sister Gabriela - who'd arranged Hannah's adoption. Several months after David's return home came the bombshell : a priest David had spoken to at the orphanage wrote a letter with the news that not only was Hannah's biological father still alive, she also had at least one older brother. "My Fathers' Daughter" tells the story of Hannah's trip back to Eritrea to meet her 'natural' family for the first time. This is a very easily read book, though it can't have been a very easy one to write. Hannah doesn't spare herself - her doubts, panics, frustrations and the occasional bout of confusion are all covered. The fact that much of the book is written in the present tense, in nearly a conversational tone, really helped put those feelings across. At times, it felt like I was intruding on something a little too personal - like someone else's diary, I was unsure I 'should' be reading parts of it. At the same time, however, it almost felt like the book finished too soon. The epilogue, looking back over the year after she returned home, could nearly have been worth a book itself. Very highly recommended. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   3 of 3 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing story, 28 April 2006 By  A. Grundy "Alex Grundy" (Manchester) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This review is from: My Father's Daughter (Paperback) You can't comprehend how you would cope if you believed you were an orphan and then discovered you weren't. But Hannah Pool's book is heartwarming and inclusive. It brings you into the story, feeling her fear, nervousness, excitement and joy. Told with humility and humour it's a great story that will bring a tear to your eye. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars A Real and Honest read, 11 Mar 2006 By  RisaJae (UK) - See all my reviews Once I started reading this book I found it really hard to put it down, I read it front to back in 2 days. Hannah Pool's story is one that I'm sure many individuals can relate to, whether they are black or white, female or male and in fact from anywhere in the world. This book is full of emotion and it even has bits of comedy in it. This book is a must read ! Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 3 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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