Waris Dirie ran away from her oppressive life in the African desert when she was barely in her teens, illiterate and impoverished, with nothing to her name but a tattered shawl. She traveled alone across the dangerous Somali desert to Mogadishu — the first leg of a remarkable journey that would take her to London, where she worked as a house servant; then to nearly every corner of the globe as an internationally renowned fashion model; and ultimately to New York City, where she became a human rights ambassador for the U.N. Desert Flower is her extraordinary story.
"This... is no fluff-job dictated into a tape recorder on transatlantic flights, then recomposed by a hired gun back in New York. Rather, it is a striking account of a personal odyssey that began in the Somali desert, where Dirie grew up without shoes, living amid nomadic tribes and tyrannized by patriarchal strictures.... it is Dirie's remarkable lack of narcissism or entitlement that makes her so captivating a raconteur." — Publishers Weekly
Recommended Age | Adults |
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Author | Waris Dirie, Cathleen Miller |
ISBN | 9780688172374 |
Publication Date | Mar 15, 2011 |
Publisher | William Morrow Paperbacks |
Language | English |