When I first read this book, I could not believe the amount of suffering a single individual can go through or tolerate.

Togolese teenager Fauziya Kassindja has a life that most children dream of. A comfortable life with all her needs catered for, a loving mother and sisters and an adoring father. Her life seems like the perfect one.

Her father sends her to school in Ghana, so that she can learn English because schools in her native Togo teach in French.

However, her life turns on its head after the death of her father from a longstanding asthmatic complication. According to tradition, her father’s brother inherits all her late father’s property as well as being her legal custodian.

She is pulled out of school and forced to marry a man old enough to be her father and to make matters worse, she has to undergo female circumcision.

With the help of her elder sister, she is able to flee the country and her impending circumcision. The book tells the story of the incredible journey of Kasindja and her travails with the United States Immigration justice system.

My only advice to you is to carry your handkerchief whenever you are going to read the book because it will definitely have you rubbing tears.

Internet photo