Don’t Look Back: A Memoir of War, Survival, and My Journey from Sudan to America
Written by Achut Deng
and Keely Hutton
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
After a deadly attack in South Sudan left six-year-old Achut Deng without a family, she lived in refugee camps for ten years, until a refugee relocation program gave her the opportunity to move to the United States. When asked why she should be given a chance to leave the camp, Achut simply told the interviewer: I want life.
But the chance at starting a new life in a new country came with a different set of challenges. Some of them equally deadly. Taught by the strong women in her life not to look back, Achut kept moving forward, overcoming one obstacle after another, facing each day with hope and faith in her future. Yet, just as Achut began to think of the US as her home, a tie to her old life resurfaced, and for the first time, she had no choice but to remember her past.
Primary ISBN: 9780374389727
Publication Date: October 2022
Available As: Hardcover, Audiobook, eBook
Memoir, Young Adult, Age 12 or older
Community Represented: South Sudanese/South Sudanese American
Themes: Family Separation: Different Immigration Status, Generational Differences: Gender Roles, Human Rights Violation: Genocide, Multilingual Character, Own Voices/Lived Experience, Refugee Camp, Refugee Journey, Refugee: Asylee, Refugee: War/Conflict, Trauma & Healing: Death of Family or Friend
Setting: South Sudan (Wernyol), United States (Houston, Texas)
Character’s New Arrival/New American Status: Refugee
Book Creator(s) Connection to the Community Represented: Own Voices/Lived Experience
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