Tracy Kidder Talks About New Book at Mercy Corps

By Jeff Baker

The Oregonian, October 14, 2009

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It’s easy to look through the person delivering groceries or driving a cab or changing the sheets in a hotel, Tracy Kidder told a sold-out audience in the new Mercy Corps building in Old Town on Tuesday night. Easy to give them a tip, or not, and go on with your life, never giving them another thought.

But every person has a story, and the immigrant who just handed over a sack of groceries in New York might have travelled thousands of miles and gone through several circles of hell to get there. He might be a Burundian refugee named Deogratias Niyizonkiza, a medical student who escaped civil war and genocidal violence and made a new life for himself, first in the U.S. and then as the founder of a medical clinic in Burundi.

Deo, as he is known, is the subject of Kidder’s new book “Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness,” and was the primary subject of his talk at Mercy Corps. Kidder met Deo through Dr. Paul Farmer, the main character in his previous book, “Mountains Beyond Mountains,” and eventually went to Burundi with him, a trip that was revelatory for Kidder and both painful and triumphant for Deo, who has made his dream of a medical clinic come true through much volunteer labor and through donations.

In an interview earlier Tuesday, Kidder said he gave Deo a copy of “Strength in What Remains” but does not know if Deo has read it. He is in contact with Deo but cannot reveal his whereabouts for security reasons. At one point, Kidder offered to give up the book project but Deo chose to see it through.

“I try pretty hard to give my potential subjects their Miranda warnings,” Kidder said. “There’s always some risk, and I did offer to stop because I thought this was too hard on him.”

Kidder is a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner whose other books include “The Soul of a New Machine” and “Among Schoolchildren.” He often spends a year or two with a subject and said he feels lucky to have the luxury of time. With his last two books, he has written about causes associated with Farmer (Partners in Health) and Deo (Village Health Works.)

“I don’t write as an advocate and don’t pay for the story,” Kidder said. “I write the story I want to write, and I think I wrote honest books. I did make a contribution to the clinic in the fledgling days (of reporting ‘Strength in What Remains’) and I don’t think it compromised me in any way. You can’t look at that kind of suffering and not want to do something to help.”