I must insist on a cliche here. So often we hear that a new non-fiction book "reads like a novel," but in the case of Tracy Kidder's Strength in What Remains it is really true.  Early in his account of Deogratias' flight from Burundi to the United States, Kidder writes, "A memory from world history class surfaced [in Deo's mind].  Maybe he was like that man who got lost and discovered America."

Deo is a latter-day Columbus, navigating his way through the perils, mysteries, and wonders of America life, without legend or language.  I'm reminded of the closing of a great American novel, The Adventures of Augie March, when our hero-narrator Augie remarks, "Why, I am a sort of Columbus of those near-at-hand, and believe you can come to them in this immediate unknown land that spreads out in ever gaze."

Deo's encounters with those near-at-hand in New York are sometimes uncomfortable, often trying, but his response is frequently heroic.