Don't Look Back
Regular price
€19.99
I want life.
For ten years, Achut Deng surrived at Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya after her family was ripped apart by the Second Sudanese Civil War. But Achut wanted to do more than merely survive. She wanted to live.
The twenty-two-year civil war essentially orphaned over 20,000 children and drove them from their villages in southern Sudan. Some of these children walked over a thousand miles, through dangerous war zones and across unforgiving deserts. They are often referred to as The Lost Boys. But there were girls, too. Achut Deng was one of them. This is her story.
It’s a story of unimaginable hardship and selfless bravery, of tormenting physical pain and amazing emotional resilience, of unbreakable bonds of friendship and family. It’s a story about what happens when your dream comes true, only to give way to a new nightmare.
It’s about how hard you will fight to save your own life.
Achut Deng was born in South Sudan and came to America as a refugee when she was sixteen years old. She is now an American citizen and works in human resources at a meat-packing plant in South Dakota, where she also resides. She is the mother of three sons.
Keely Hutton is a novelist, educational journalist, and former teacher. She is the recipient of the Highlights Foundation Writers Workshop scholarship at Chautauqua. She worked closely with Ugandan child soldier Ricky Richard Anywar to tell his story in her first novel, Soldier Boy. When she's not writing, Keely enjoys playing piano, reading, and planning Disney trips with her family. keelyhutton.com