Evanston Reads

The story Of Beetles and Angels begins when Mawi Asgedom was only three years old and his mother packed up her three children and traveled to the Sudan in search of her husband, who had been driven out of his native Ethiopia a year earlier for political reasons. 

Though Mawi’s father had earned a good living in Ethiopia, the Sudanese refugee camp offered nothing to the Asgedom family except little food and violence. His parents desired peace, and it appeared that America could provide the quiet and prosperous life they wanted for their family. 

Of Beetles & Angels is their story. It is a story of struggle, a story of love and despair. It is a story of courage, a story of hope, and a story about working hard and winning. Mawi’s words will connect the reader to the fear that accompanies displacement, and to understand that with freedom comes responsibility for determining one’s personal path in life.