Abraham Mangar was just a young boy when he and all of the other boys in his tiny village were led from the warm arms of their families into the unknown and dangerous African lands. They were told they would go to school, but instead they lived through harsh years of confusion, starvation, despair, homesickness, and a desire for purpose. Mangar's journey is a treacherous thousand-mile walk together with tens of thousands of boys who fled Sudan during the political upheaval of the 1980s. They lived under the trees and off the fruit of the land along the way; they built their own shelters and schools; they governed and taught themselves; and many of them, like Abraham, eventually made their way to America. My Life Under the Trees takes the reader day by day through the trials and tribulations of a small boy living in unimaginably horrible conditions with many others doing the same. His story is a poignant reminder of what his country and his countrymen fought to achieve, as well as an amazing glimpse into the resiliency of a child. You will laugh at some of his stories, you may cry; but you will finish this book with a clearer idea of what happened to the Lost Boys of South Sudan from the personal story of one of them.
