Land of Hope And Fear

100 Notable Books of 2023: The year’s notable fiction, poetry and nonfiction, selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review .

In 1987, Nathaniel Nyok, tormented by thoughts of missing parents and siblings, fled a bloody scene and a burning village in Sudan. Wishing to live at any cost and driven by a confrontational heart-pounding fear, he journeyed through the wild to seek sanctuary in Ethiopia. At eight, he had just capitulated to an orphan-like life with a new title, A Lost Boy of Sudan, living in a refugee camp for 14 years without a family and a future. The refugee camp became a cage that was too confining, and he languished with a sense of loss.