ISBN 9781946395672 | paperback | $17.95 | publication date April 2022
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The follow-up to her award-winning memoir, A Road Called Down on Both Sides: Growing up in Ethiopia and America. When Caroline Kurtz and her husband Mark begin working with civil war refugees in South Sudan and Kenya, they discover the deep complexities of their work, the consequences of striving for perfection in an imperfect world, and above all—the extraordinary grace to be found in the unlikeliest of places.
By 1996, millions of South Sudanese have been killed, died of starvation, or fled the decades-long civil war ravaging their country. So when the Presbyterian Church in the United States begins recruiting a development team to work with war refugees in the region, Caroline and her husband Mark are eager to help. But it’s only months before ghosts from their individual pasts whistle in to disrupt their marriage and their new postings.
Caroline finds relief in teaching and peace work in South Sudan, but the heavy responsibility she now carries for dozens of vulnerable families—coupled with the prevailing ideas of Biblical womanhood that put pressure on her personal life—makes it increasingly clear that Caroline is under-prepared for the high-stakes crisis in which she is now embedded.
Through a number of consequential mistakes and increasingly debilitating self-doubt, Caroline clings to hope that her willingness to stand with the South Sudanese will count for something in the end. A deeply personal examination of South Sudan at war—and a woman at war with herself—Today is Tomorrow shines a warm light on the darkest of places.
Reviews
“Kurtz shares her personal vulnerability and experience with readers without getting bogged down in a superior intellectual discourse about the cross-cultural differences that are so unique to Africa. It is a story that creates hope, but also not unrealistic expectations for the future. In Africa, tomorrow is always just another day and today is tomorrow.”— LitNet
“[R]eal, raw and truly a sacred story… Kurtz shares her personal vulnerability with readers, creating not just an intellectual exploration of cross-cultural differences, but rather a heart-wrenching witness of what it means to give one’s whole life…not knowing whether one’s hopes or intentions will be realized. I recommend her story to anyone willing to dive deep into their own heart to face the haunting challenges and contradictions of seeking to do God’s will when there are no simple solutions.” — The Presbyterian Outlook
“Caroline Kurtz has a gift for weaving her personal life struggles with the threads of southern Sudanese life, where contestations produce resilience and pain meets joy. My African friends who read Today Is Tomorrow may wonder if such experiences of an American woman can be real. My American friends who read this may wonder if such experiences in Sudan can be anything but fiction. But knowing Caroline in America and working side-by-side with her in Sudan, I can say that the realities she describes with such sublime word pictures are all real. She is an artistic wordsmith, and it was my privilege to have her as my right arm at Wunlit where the people made their peace become real, mal mi chum-chum, sweet peace, for a time.” — Bill Lowrey, Facilitator of Wunlit (South Sudan) People-to-People peace conference
“I have found the book hugely anthropological, historical, cultural and Spiritual. It is an adventure compelled by the love of God. “Today is Tomorrow” is indeed an incredible statement of hope for all who would like to see the light at the end of the tunnel. “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Romans 12:12 —Bishop Dr. Arkanjelo Wani Lemi, Former Presiding Bishop of Africa Inland Church, Former Chair of the South Sudan Council of Churches, Chair of the Technical Committee for establishment of the Truth, Reconciliation and Healing Commission”As a person who had been involved in the 20th anniversary of the Wunlit Peace Conference, this book deeply moved me. Caroline should be proud of being part of this historical meeting. These rhetorics of war and peace continue to challenge us, and though the environment has changed politically, to say the least, there have been successes and failures, but South Sudan continues to seek peace.” —Machot A. Malou, Research Consultant with Rift Valley Institute in South Sudan
Praise for A Road Called Down on Both Sides
“This is a lyrical rendering of life lived on a fault-line between cultures, where accepted beliefs grind together and sometimes collapse.”—Tim Bascom, author of Chameleon Days and Running to the Fire
“[O]ffers a unique, historically informed perspective on a fascinating nation.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Introspective and light-hearted… I was elated to find that her colorful journey and deliberation afforded her the best possible conclusion—Ethiopia and America are indeed different but they may be the yin and yang that we all seek.” — Dr. Woubeshet Ayenew, Former Chairman of the Board, Ethiopian Community of Minnesota Organization (ECM)
“…very interesting memoir worth sharing with a global audience.”—Dr. Worku L. Mulat, President of Ethiopian Institute of Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation, honorary professor at Wollo University and research associate at The Tree Foundation
About Caroline Kurtz
From the age of five, Caroline Kurtz grew up in Ethiopia, the child of Presbyterian Church missionaries. The family lived in the church’s most remote mission station in the mountainous regions of southwestern Ethiopia near the town of Maji. Beginning at the age of ten, Caroline attended boarding school in in Addis Ababa and then Alexandria, Egypt. Caroline left for college in the United States at eighteen, unprepared for U.S. culture. She eventually married a childhood sweetheart, also the child of American missionaries to Ethiopia, and the couple returned with their family to live and work in Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Sudan.
She and her sister, the American children’s author Jane Kurtz, recently launched Ready Set Go Books for early Ethiopian readers. Ready Set Go has now printed and distributed 70,000 books in Ethiopia. When her husband died in 2013, Caroline bought, gutted and remodeled a house in Portland, Oregon. From there she returns regularly to Ethiopia, bringing solar power and economic development options to women in Maji. Learn more about Caroline and her work at https://developmaji.org/