Reading Slowly, Dictionary At Hand

A few months ago, I bought a book that I plan to read through, even if it takes me all year. The title: "Über tausend Hügel wandere ich mit dir," by Hanna Jansen -- needless to say, I'll be reading it with my German dictionary close at hand.

The book's now available in English as "Over a Thousand Hills I Walk with You." I'll probably buy the English version to read alongside. Ms. Jansen tells the story of Jeanne, a young girl she and her husband adopted from Rwanda, after Jeanne's family was murdered in the 1994 genocide. The Jansens have eleven other children, most of whom are war orphans.

Noting that her daughter's keen memory made her "a very reliable witness," Jansen remarks that recalling even the positive aspects of her past was painful for Jeanne: "It was hard for her to return to the good memories of her family that, until then, she had split off from herself. To feel what she had lost called up enormous grief in her, which I had to cushion. Sometimes I could only hold her tight, not knowing how to comfort her."