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ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Sosina Wogayehu is really something. She has 'chutzpah' or 'spunk' or whatever you call it when you get busy when the odds are stacked against you. It is part of the reason she approached her friend (and author) David Carlin to write her story. Sosina is originally from Ethiopia and she met David (originally from Perth) when they both worked at Circus Oz, he in management and she under the bright lights. But this is way down the track. David begins with the 8-year-old selling cigarettes one by one on the streets of Addis Ababa.
What is different is that David's journey into the life of his Ethiopian friend is part of the story too, and the way it is told gives the book the feeling of being a novel - a wonderful tale full of happenings and characters that give us insights into larger themes around our cultures. Comedy and tragedy are all contained within these pages.
David's frankness and Sosina's front-foot approach to life make for a rich story of cross-cultural bonding. This was a joyous, heartwarming story to read.
Sosina Wogayehu learnt to do flips and splits at the age of six, sitting on the floor of her parents' lounge room in Addis Ababa, watching a German variety show on the only television channel in the land. She sold cigarettes on the streets at the age of eight, and played table soccer with her friends who made money from washing cars, barefoot in the dust. She dreamed of being a circus performer.
Twenty-five years later, Sosina has conjured herself a new life in a far-off country: Australia. She has rescued one brother and lost another. She has travelled the world as a professional contortionist. She can bounce-juggle eight balls on a block of marble.
Sosina is able to juggle worlds and stories, too, and by luck - which is something Sosina is not short of - she has a friend, David Carlin, who is a writer. Following his acclaimed memoir Our Father Who Wasn't There, David brings us his 'not-me' book, travelling to Addis Ababa where he discovers ways of living so different to his own and confronts his Western fantasies and fears.
Through Sosina's story he shows us that, with risk and enough momentum, life - whom we befriend, where we end up, how we come to see ourselves - is never predictable.
By:
David Carlin Imprint: University of Western Aus Country of Publication: Australia Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 153mm,
Spine: 14mm
Weight: 363g ISBN:9781742586786 ISBN 10: 1742586783 Pages: 280 Publication Date:02 March 2015 Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format:Paperback Publisher's Status: Active
Reviews for The Abyssinian Contortionist: Hope, friendship and other circus acts
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Sosina Wogayehu is really something. She has 'chutzpah' or 'spunk' or whatever you call it when you get busy when the odds are stacked against you. It is part of the reason she approached her friend (and author) David Carlin to write her story. Sosina is originally from Ethiopia and she met David (originally from Perth) when they both worked at Circus Oz, he in management and she under the bright lights. But this is way down the track. David begins with the 8-year-old selling cigarettes one by one on the streets of Addis Ababa.
What is different is that David's journey into the life of his Ethiopian friend is part of the story too, and the way it is told gives the book the feeling of being a novel - a wonderful tale full of happenings and characters that give us insights into larger themes around our cultures. Comedy and tragedy are all contained within these pages.
David's frankness and Sosina's front-foot approach to life make for a rich story of cross-cultural bonding. This was a joyous, heartwarming story to read.
