Synopsis

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 First Liberian Civil War forces the family to flee their home on foot, walking and hiding for three harrowing weeks until they reach 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 escape during 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 brings a novelist's eye for suspense and emotional depth to her own story, crafting an unforgettable memoir full of imaginative, lyrical prose. In capturing both the hazy magic of childhood memory and the stark realities of displacement, Moore shines a light on the political and personal forces that continue to affect migrants around the world, and calls us all to acknowledge the tenacious power of love and family.