A review by katie1031
I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Delphine Minoui, Nojoud Ali

2.0

Nujood's story is important. However, this book was translated from Arabic to French and then from French to English. Things get so lost in chain translation, this story may very well be, is even likely told very differently in its native langue. Unfortunately something about the English translation felt sanitized and uncomfortable. Like the story had been given to a Hollywood writer. In addition, a more journalist approach would have been better when it came to telling this story. The story is written in first person, the language is colorful and wordy, clearly not how ten-year-old girls internal dialogue would sound. This is the story of a child's trauma, written by someone else much too close to the time of the events that took place. This should have been her story to tell, I was under the impression that this was a memoir when I picked it up, I was clearly very wrong. This felt exploitive and while (as I said before) some of this is due to the translation, not all of it is.