Relentless - An Immigrant Story

As war rages in her beloved homeland and her husband is taken away to fight in it, a young mother faces the most difficult decision of her life -- which of her two precious daughters can she save... and which must she sacrifice.

This is the story of one mother's heroic struggle to rescue her family from the clutches of uncertainty and oppression.

There is a proverb in my native Tigrinya language, both warning and admonishment. It goes like this:

Haki tseraba mot keraba.
It means: If you speak the truth, you will gather many enemies.
Well, I say let them come. Let them see how the pain they have inflicted has made me who I am:

Relentless.

Eritrean by blood, Wudasie Nayzgi was raised deep in the heart of neighboring Ethiopia, a nation that for generations after the Second World War refused her people their independence. After a bloody 30-year war ends the violent reign of brutal Ethiopian dictator Emperor Haile Selassie, Wudasie returns to her ancestral homeland, a stranger in search of her roots and a chance to raise a family. For a while, it seems her dreams are within reach.

But soon, new threats arise, coming from old enemies, as well as new. Her husband is forcibly taken off the street to fight another war, and her oldest daughter is diagnosed with a life-threatening heart defect. With the borders sealed shut, an increasingly paranoid government resorting ever more to violence and suppression, and medical treatment unavailable in-country, her only remaining option to save her daughter's life might not be so viable after all. For even if the government allows her to leave, doing so could end up shattering more lives than it saves.

Relentless is the powerful memoir of a wife and mother who refused to compromise and instead defied one of the world's most corrupt and murderous regimes, and after decades of personal struggle and sacrifice finally found peace and redemption. A heartbreaking story for the ages with an inspiring outcome that celebrates the strength, determination, and heroism of women everywhere.
 

Relentless is part of the Dreams of Freedom collection, stories of resilience from Eritrea, the small war-torn nation known as the North Korea of Africa.