THERE IS NO ME WITHOUT YOU
One Woman’s Odyssey To Rescue Her Country’s Children

“A fundamental truth — heartwarming and heartbreaking — underlies this passionate narrative: Every child needs a loving parent, and every mother needs a child.”
–The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, A Best Book of the Year


There is No Me Without You (Bloomsbury, 2006) is the story of a middle-class Ethiopian widow, Mrs. Haregewoin Teferra [1946-2009] who, out of the multiple tragedies in her own life, opened her door to AIDS-orphaned children and was then inundated by them, nearly beyond her capacity to care for them all. Her path takes her from public adoration to denunciation and prison; but, then, it has been said that “even Mother Teresa was no Mother Teresa.” Along the way, she saved the lives of hundreds of children, many of whom began new lives with adoptive families in Ethiopia and abroad.

Winner of Elle Magazine’s Elle’s Lettres Readers Prize

Finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize,

American Library Association Notable Book

Booksense Notable Book

Winner, with Mrs. Haregewoin Teferra, of the Fervent Global Love of Lives Award, Taiwan

People Magazine Critic’s Choice

Named a Best Book of the Year by

Publishers Weekly

Christian Science Monitor,

Entertainment Weekly,

Chicago Tribune

The Atlanta Constitution,

The Anchorage Press

The Oregonian


Mrs. Haregewoin appears (at 1:20) in film-maker Dorothy Fadiman’s 2006 documentary, Whose Children Are They Now?