Brick by Brick, Karen Sherman
Brick by Brick, Karen Sherman
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Brick by Brick
Building Hope and Opportunity for Women Survivors Everywhere

Author: Karen Sherman

Narrator: Donna Postel

Unabridged: 10 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 10/27/2020

Synopsis

After a twenty-five-year career spent fighting for women's rights around the globe at the expense of time with her family, Karen Sherman looked around and realized she didn't really know her children and felt little connection to her husband. With her world—work, marriage, family—crashing down, she made the rash decision to move to Rwanda with her three sons, an experiment she dubbed "our year of living dangerously."

While her boys attended the international school, she worked to better the lives of women survivors of war. But as the survivors shared their stories of grit and determination, building lives and raising families despite the brutal challenges of war, genocide, and inequality, Karen began to see how her work was connected to the abuse in her own past, and how it was preventing her from becoming the woman she wanted to be. The struggles of these survivors, she realized, were the struggles of women everywhere, regardless of place or circumstance: striving to balance work and family, fighting for real options and choices, trying to make their voices heard.

In the end, the journey brings her home to her family and to a renewed commitment to fighting for women around the world to live free from violence and abuse, in peace and with dignity.

About Karen Sherman

Karen Sherman is president of Akilah, a college in Rwanda providing accessible and affordable higher education for women. Prior to joining Akilah, she was the COO and led global programs at Women for Women International, an organization that enables women survivors of war to restart their lives. Karen has also served as executive vice president at Counterpart International, a global humanitarian and development organization. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband and their three sons.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Katie

The author writes about her time working with women entrepreneurs in Africa (Rwanda, although she travels elsewhere). The stories are fascinating and enlightening in terms of what some women can make do with and make themselves successful on a small scale and sometimes a large scale, especially comi......more

Goodreads review by Jill

The author is a humanitarian worker for the rights of women in marginalized situations who often put her family second and her work first. Tired of living so far away and missing a lot of her sons' lives, she decides to move her three boys with her to Rwanda. The author is ambivalent about her marri......more

Goodreads review by Eve

I was fortunate to get an advanced review copy of this book which is Sherman's first venture into authorhood. The book takes place in a pretty wide array of places -some of which are familiar to me (suburban DC) and others that are truly a world away - Sudan and Rwanda. Her story is woven in among t......more

Goodreads review by C.B.

Brick by Brick is a compelling look at one-person's transformation in the context of fighting for women's rights and development. Blending the personal, professional and greater context helping women in war-torn countries. I found myself drawn in, as a family friend I knew of some of the challenges......more

Goodreads review by Cheryl

I loved this book. The author’s personal story is fiercely honest and relatable on many levels. In addition to loving the author’s story, I was also blown away reading the interspersed personal stories of the courageous women she has met throughout her long career serving women in war-torn countries......more

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