Wrong examines the harm done to the tiny African nation of Eritrea by decades of foreign meddling by Italy, the United States, Great Britain, and other countries.
Critic Reviews
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Outstanding
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Kirkus Reviews
Wrong's fiery prose boils the blood and burns infamy into the memory.
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Outstanding
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The Economist
Wrong's second book... is, if anything, better than her first. Her original research is more illuminating, her eye more observant, her writing far more wry and witty.
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Outstanding
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The Guardian Justin Hill
Wrong offers an uplifting testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Eminently readable and full of fascinating detail, this is a book that deserves and needs to be read.
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Outstanding
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The Independent Julie Wheelwright
Wrong has... written a lyrical, intensely intelligent and wonderfully readable history of Eritrea, offering a cogent explanation for its seeming failures.
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Outstanding
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The Spectator James Astill
In myriad perfectly observed details, and above all in the spirit of Eritrea’s cussed people, [Wrong] finds cause for hope.
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Favorable
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Los Angeles Times Avedis Hadjian
[Wrong] relies heavily on secondary sources from outside the country, often leaving the reader with the nagging feeling that the Eritreans are missing from the picture. Yet Wrong compensates with rich prose and the passion she brings to the subject of the nation's independence.
[16 Dec 2005]
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Favorable
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Publishers Weekly
A complicated history so punctuated with violence is not exactly easy to read about, but [Wrong's] extraordinary grasp of the postcolonial psyche and tormented national identity of this country makes it fascinating.
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Favorable
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Houston Chronicle Steve Weinberg
[Wrong's] book, while clear-eyed about imperfections of Eritreans, is a valentine to a nation abused again and again by outsiders.
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Favorable
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The New York Times William Grimes
Eloquent and impassioned.
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Favorable
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Daily Telegraph Robert Guest
It is the details that make Wrong's account so gripping.
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Mixed
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Washington Post Susan E. Rice
An outsider struggling to convey the essence of another nation's character may be tempted to simplify -- a temptation to which... Wrong succumbs in her new book.
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Mixed
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The New York Times Book Review Stephanie Giry
[An] engaging history of a forgotten country.
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Mixed
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Wall Street Journal Martin Hutchinson
Wrong might have devoted more space to the region's long precolonial history before judging the effects of European transgressions.
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Mixed
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The Nation Andrew Rice
In devastating detail, Wrong excavates the motivations and machinations of Eritrea's various self-interested overlords and shows how this small, determined nation learned to fight back, finally winning the thing it desired most: its freedom. But in the end, as perceptive as she is, Wrong can't quite explain her story's final, cruelest and most intriguing twist: how Eritrea came to betray itself.
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