Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder

A New York Times Bestseller and Publishers Weekly Bestseller — also named one of Time magazine’s Top 10 Nonfiction Books of the Year and one of O: The Oprah Magazine’s “10 Terrific Reads.”

Some stories stop you in your tracks. This is one of them.

Deo arrives in New York from Burundi carrying two hundred dollars, no English, and the weight of having survived civil war and genocide. He sleeps in Central Park. He learns English from dictionaries in bookstores. And then, slowly, through the quiet kindness of strangers, he finds his way toward Columbia University, medical school, and a life dedicated to healing others.

It’s the kind of story that reminds you what human beings are capable of — both in darkness and in light.

Named one of the best books of the year by the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, and Publishers Weekly, this is narrative nonfiction at its most powerful. The Washington Post called it “extraordinarily stirring . . . a miracle of human courage.” The New York Times praised it as “absorbing . . . about profound human kindness.”

The kind of book you press into someone’s hands and say, you have to read this. Perfect for readers drawn to memoir, history, medical journeys, or simply the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit.

We keep this one close to the register for a reason. It never stays on the shelf for long.

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