Disturbed in Their Nests
A Journey from Sudan’s Dinkaland to San Diego’s City Heights
by Alephonsion Deng and Judy A. Bernstein
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Pub Date Nov 06 2018 | Archive Date Nov 06 2018
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Description
**The powerful follow-up to the bestselling book
They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky**
Blackstone Publishing is proud to announce the forthcoming release of DISTURBED IN THEIR NESTS: A Journey from Sudan’s Dinkaland to San Diego’s City Heights [Blackstone Publishing; November 6, 2018; paperback original] by Alephonsion Deng and Judy A. Bernstein.
Nineteen-year-old refugee Alephonsion Deng, from war-ravaged Sudan, had great expectations when he arrived in America three weeks before two airlines crashed into the World Trade Towers. Money, he’d been told, was given to you in pillows. Machines did all the work. Education was free.
Suburban mom Judy Bernstein had her own assumptions. The teenaged “Lost Boys of Sudan”—who’d traveled barefoot and starving for a thousand miles—needed a little mothering and a change of scenery: a trip to the zoo, perhaps, or maybe the beach.
Partnered through a mentoring program in San Diego, these two individuals from opposite sides of the world began an eye-opening journey that radically altered each other’s vision and life.
Disturbed in Their Nests recounts the first year of this heartwarming partnership; the initial misunderstandings, the growing trust, and, ultimately, their lasting friendship. Their contrasting points of view provide of-the-moment insight into what refugees face when torn from their own cultures and thrust into entirely foreign ones.
Alepho struggles to understand the fast-paced, supersized way of life in America. He lands a job, but later is viciously beaten. Will he ever escape violence and hatred?
Judy faces her own struggles: Alepho and his fellow refugees need jobs, education, housing, and health care. Why does she feel so compelled and how much support should she provide?
The migrant crises in the Middle East, Central America, Europe, and Africa have put refugees in the headlines. Countless human tragedies are reduced to mere numbers. Personal stories such as Alepho’s add a face to the news and lead to greater understanding of the strangers among us. Readers experience Alepho’s discomfort, fears, and triumphs in a way that a newscast can’t convey. This timely and inspiring personal account will make readers laugh, cry, and examine their own place in the world.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Alephonsion Deng was relocated from the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya to the United States as part of the UNHCR refugee resettlement program in 2001. He now lives in San Diego and shares his extraordinary story of survival and his belief that you cannot change what happened to you, but you can create your own future with schools, colleges, and organizations.
Judy A. Bernstein lives in San Diego and devotes her time to speaking at schools, colleges, and organizations regarding tolerance and refugee issues. She continues to mentor refugees and is working on her next book.
A Note From the Publisher
For publicity requests, please contact Lauren Maturo, Senior Publicist, Blackstone Publishing at lauren.maturo@blackstoneaudio.com
Advance Praise
Advance Praise for DISTURBED IN THEIR NESTS
"This book represents the beginning—or a necessary reset—of an essential dialogue."
-Kirkus Reviews
"In a follow-up to their previous collaboration, They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky (2005), Deng and Bernstein alternate telling the story of their mentoring relationship, narrating the same events from different perspectives, in an eye-opening and richly layered account."
-Bridget Thoreson, Booklist
“[As] Deng, his brother, Benson, and his cousins, Lino and Benjamin, tried to adjust to life in San Diego…the city’s strange, sometimes threatening inhabitants presented their own challenges…The book brims with stories of the boys’ bumpy adjustment…A memoir that will bring comfort to those enduring similar challenges, the book’s stories will be instructive to those committed to improving the quality of immigrants’ lives.”
-Foreword Reviews (Starred Review)
"Disturbed in Their Nests is a strikingly original work that opens a broader conversation on the momentous issues of our time: war, conflict, migration, refugees, relocation, and adjustments in new spaces, all in the context of national and global politics wrapped in a fog of confusion. The captivating stories create eyebrow-raising reflections on the nature of suffering, humane obligations to assist one another, sentiments on the weakest members of our collective humanity, the pain and anguish of survival, the redemptive power of fresh imaginations about oneself, shining positive light on otherness, the impactful moral lifeways that define memory, and the clever navigation of the long pathways from localism to cosmopolitanism that speaks to the richness and transformative capacity of social relationships."
-Toyin Falola, author of A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt
"Disturbed in Their Nests offers evidence that all of us are always one decision or moment away from a totally different life. Judy and Alepho's experiences illustrate how to overcome fear of the unknown and to engage in relationships that foster respect for our common humanity."
-Anita Ayers Henderlight, executive director of Africa Education & Leadership Initiative
"This book is a double story of survival…Beautifully crafted in their two voices, Disturbed in Their Nests shows what happens when different cultures meet."
-Lucy Rose Fischer, PhD, author of Linked Lives: Adult Daughters and Their Mothers
"At a time when our immigration and refugee programs are under siege, Disturbed in Their Nests is a welcomed breath of reality."
-Bob Montgomery, executive director, International Rescue Committee (IRC) San Diego, retired
"There are basically two opposing ways for citizens of the rich nations to respond to the refugee crisis. One is to cringe in fear, lashing out at the new arrivals, bombarding them with abuse and threats. The other way is to adopt the ancient principles of hospitality, welcoming the victims and learning from them. The writers of Disturbed in Their Nests show that taking this humanitarian option is neither easy nor straightforward; the meeting of two alien cultures can be experienced as a clash and a challenge. However, the fundamental message of the book is that the mutual struggle for understanding by the new and the old bestows profound benefits on both parties. In the end, the virtuous course turns out also to be the most profitable."
-Dr. Philip Cassell, PhD Sociology, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College, Melbourne, Australia
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781982546229 |
| PRICE | $17.99 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
Jade H, Reviewer
I read They Poured Fire On Us From The Sky back in 2012 (review is linked for anyone interested), and still remember how the stories of the brothers and their cousin affected me. The stories of the “Lost Boys” of Sudan still haunt me today, even more so now that I have my own children.
They Poured Fire on Us From The Sky was written by Alephonsion Deng, Benson Deng, and Benjamin Ajak, with their mentor Judy Bernstein’s help. In it each of the men recounts leaving their villages when they were still very young, fleeing from those attacking them, and the harrowing treks through Sudan to Ethiopia, back to Sudan, and finally to a refugee camp in Kenya where they remained for years before being granted refugee status in the US. Disturbed In Their Nests is written by Judy and Alepho and is a memoir of the first year of their life in the US. I love the composition of the memoir, as chapters alternate between the two voices, as if they were right back there in 2001. It allows us to see both Judy and Alepho’s perceptions of everything, which leads to some comical areas, but also to some very sad parts too, especially when a certain term we all use in the US is completely misunderstood by Alepho, which ends up causing him harm.
Benson and Benjamin’s voices are also often heard through Judy and Alepho’s narrative, as well as their other roommates James and Daniel’s experiences. Alepho also recounts some of his experiences as a young boy fleeing his home, as well as life in the refugee camp during his chapters. After finishing this book I honestly feel like I am on first name basis with all of them: their voices are so real, so heartwarming, but also so devastatingly raw. You cannot read this book without taking a serious look at your own life in order to find areas where you can really do better. These children, and now adults, survived despite the odds being stacked so hard against them, and I don’t think we can even begin to imagine what it took to continue living despite the conditions around them.
In my opinion this book, as well as many others, should be on high school curriculums. We need to understand the importance of refugee programs, and why we should be accepting people from all countries in conflict, not just picking and choosing based on country and religion. The number of resettled refugees in the US dropped by tens of thousands in 2017, and this country has more than enough space and resources to welcome many, many more people than that. No child should ever have to witness what Alepho, Benson, and Benjamin did, but there are so many children who are facing similar harrowing ordeals all over the world.
Other excellent books to read on the subjects of the “Lost Boys” and Sudan in general can be found right here. Saviors and Survivors by Mahmood Mamdani provides an in-depth analysis of Darfur which I found to be a very important read personally. You can find more general information on the extent of the refugee crisis in Sudan here, or you can watch a documentary on two of the Lost Boys here.
Bonnye Reed F, Reviewer
Disturbed in Their Nests is a memoir written by Alephonsion Deng, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, and his mentor Judy A. Bernstein, covering the time Alepho, his brother Benson and cousin Leno arrived in San Diego as refugees with flashbacks to their lives in Sudan and the nine years they spent in Kenya's Refugee Camp Kakuma housing 100,000 people. Their resettlement in the United States finally happened in the summer of 2001. And talk about culture shock....
This is a must read for all Americans. We are again facing an immigration crisis in the US, and too many of us have forgotten the cost of our freedom - the assimilation of others downtrodden and homeless through no fault of their own. They must be welcomed just as most of us were at some point in history.
I received a free electronic copy of this memoir from Netgalley, Alephonsion Dent and Judy A. Bernstein and Blackstone Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.
Lectus R, Librarian
Just like the previous book, this book is wonderful. While the other book is about their journey in Sudan, this book is about their lives in America.
I enjoyed reading how they ajusted to a new culture and had a laugh reading about the misunderstandings of the language and customs.
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