The Dragons, the Giant, the Women: A Memoir

Written by Wayetu Moore

Narrated by Tovah Ott

FINALIST FOR THE 2020 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHY

An engrossing memoir of escaping the First Liberian Civil War and building a life in the United States

When Wayétu Moore turns five years old, her father and grandmother throw her a big birthday party at their home in Monrovia, Liberia, but all she can think about is how much she misses her mother, who is working and studying in faraway New York. Before she gets the reunion her father promised her, war breaks out in Liberia. The family is forced to flee their home on foot, walking and hiding for three weeks until they arrive in the village of Lai. Finally, a rebel soldier smuggles them across the border to Sierra Leone, reuniting the family and setting them off on yet another journey, this time to the United States.

Spanning this harrowing journey in Moore’s early childhood, her years adjusting to life in Texas as a black woman and an immigrant, and her eventual return to Liberia, The Dragons, the Giant, the Women is a deeply moving story of the search for home in the midst of upheaval. Moore has a novelist’s eye for suspense and emotional depth, and this unforgettable memoir is full of imaginative, lyrical flights and lush prose. In capturing both the hazy magic and the stark realities of what is becoming an increasingly pervasive experience, Moore shines a light on the great political and personal forces that continue to affect many migrants around the world, and calls us all to acknowledge the tenacious power of love and family.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jun 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781721366361

Wayetu Moore

Wayétu Moore is the founder of One Moore Book and is a graduate of Howard University, Columbia University, and the University of Southern California. She teaches at the City University of New York’s John Jay College and lives in Brooklyn.

Reviews for The Dragons, the Giant, the Women

[Blessing John · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wayetu Moore’s writing is pure magic. Words cannot even begin to explain. This story will move you to tears, but the narration will hold you steady. Will definitely be reading this again.

[Lucia Garcia · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It is a wonderful, sad, stressful book.
I had no idea about Liberian history. This book encouraged me to look deeper.
It is amazing how her dad and grandma made EVERYTHING possible to protect Wayétu and her siblings from the war, both from bodily harm as from the psychological trauma: guns firing were dragons fighting!
Her mother risking EVERYTHING to come to her family's aid and make sure they make it out safe.
The women soldiers who, yes... took advantage of an opportunity to make money but also saved countless lives! The people who got out because of them and their families, the futures that they ensured. Brave women.
It is heartbreaking how we keep doing harm to each other in exchange for power, the power to continue to do harm.
This is a story that people should know about!
Wonderful book! I am really glad I read it.

[Ene Audu · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Moore’s journey through early childhood, growing up as a black immigrant in Texas and retuning to Liberia is a moving and thrilling story. Read it, you will not be disappointed. Someone said about this book “there’s the story itself, then the storytelling. Huntington beautiful” pretty much sums up this work.

[Somila Dondashe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Stunning! Especially the chapters after the war. Wayetu is a brilliant writer. This story is a essential reading

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

nonfiction, autobiographical (author retraces her family's traumatic escape from war-torn Liberia when she was 5 y.o.)It took me a while to figure out what was going on, but I enjoyed the author's journey in piecing together the fractured memories. If you have the patience to stick with it, it's worth it.

[kakadoo202 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Really wanted to like it but cannot get into the writing style

[eas7788 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I wasn't sure how she would make the parts fit together, and then I got to the last section and it all worked, especially the last paragraphs. It was so suspenseful and tense at times. I loved her use of the child's perspective -- so strong in images. It was agonizing to read in many ways. And yet so joyful. I want to re-read.