Strength In What Remains

A Burundian medical student escapes the horrific violence of civil war and ends up sleeping in Central Park.

Deogratias is a medical student in Burundi when civil war breaks out in his homeland. In 1994 he flees to New York to build a new life where he learns English by hanging out in book stores, delivering groceries to the rich of the city and finds rest by sleeping in Central Park. By incredible grace, a former nun connects Deo with a retired couple who take an interest in him and go on to support him through his studies at Columbia University and eventually on to medical school. This astounding memoir is full of heartbreak and horror, yet leaves a reader more than a little hopeful about Deo’s future. Author Tracy Kidder, is a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner. He is an excellent story teller.