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A Road Called Down On Both Sides
9781946395153
This memoir by a debut writer explores the unique experiences of children who grow up surrounded by a culture that is different than the culture of their parents--third-culture kids, who never belong in either their parents' culture or the culture that surrounded and nourished them as children. It also explores the distinct shame, sorrow, heritage, joys, and spiritual realities of people whose parents made full-time careers in religious work. Should interest readers of memoirs of growing up in Africa (like Alexandra Fuller), growing up outside of your parents' home culture, spiritual memoirs, and memoirs about finding home, finding a place where you belong. The memoir also explores universal themes of mother-daughter and sister relationships, examining expectations for women's behavior that persist well into the present.
Paperback
16.00
$
Pub Date:
July 2019
Praise For:
A Road Called Down On Both Sides
“[O]ffers a unique, historically informed perspective on a fascinating nation.” —Kirkus Reviews
"I relished the introspective and lighthearted story telling by Caroline as she navigated the winding paths in her two very distinct worlds. [...] 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)
"… a 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.
"I finished this gripping story in a couple sittings because I wanted to know, badly, what would come of this remarkable girl raised on a ridge between two very different worlds. From the earliest age, Caroline Kurtz had to negotiate tensions between her parents’ driven idealism and the resolute traditionalism of peasants who still dressed in hand-woven shawls and plowed with oxen. This is a lyrical rendering of life lived on a fault-line between cultures, where accepted beliefs grind together and sometimes collapse. Read the book and see who emerges." —Tim Bascom, author of Chameleon Days and Running to the Fire
Creators
Author: 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 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 eventually 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. Over 12,000 copies have been distributed in Ethiopia. Now retired, widowed, and living in Oregon, Caroline returns regularly to Ethiopia where she continues development and consulting work, particularly in the area of solar energy. This is her debut book in the United States. https://carolinekurtzauthor.com/