Fire walkers memoir

Summary: Fire Walkers is about the perilous journey of Beth, a fourteen-year old girl, who fled her native land with her family. Beth grew up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where she lived happily until a military dictatorship took power by deposing Emperor Haile Selassie. Under the military rule, mass executions, tortures, disappearances, mandatory services and brothers against brothers became the norm. Beth's father was tipped that he was listed for persecution, and decided to flee with his family in the middle of the revolution. At the start of the escape, he told the children that they were going on vacation. Beth and her brothers were excited until strewn in the wilderness of the Danakil Desert with no hope of returning home. Their journey turned for the worst when their trusted guides led them into an ambush. Armed bandits attacked the family and took away what little was packed for the journey. Then the guides disappeared leaving the distressed family to wander. Lost and starved under the scorching sun and blinding sandstorm, the family survived the journey by the kindness of strangers--the nomads of the Danakil Desert. After seventeen treacherous days they reached Djibouti where they managed to survive as refugees until they immigrated to Canada.