I heard Outcasts United reviewed, and the author interviewed, on my drive to the church this morning. It's the story of an international youth soccer team in a WASP Atlanta suburb. The boys come from several countries - Somalia, Afganistan, Iraq, Iran, Liberia, and more. Coached by Warren St. John, from Jordan, they make waves in the small, homogeneous, Southern town where they have been settled as refugees, along with their families. Remember, though, that they come with incomplete families, parents having been raped, murdered, abducted, and gone missing because of the wars and violence that ravage their homelands. But here they are. Making a new home. Mary Pipher says this of the book, 'The refugee experience of dislocation, cultural bereavement, confusion and constant change will soon be all of our experience. As the world becomes globalized, we'll all be searching for a home.' This book is on my summer reading list for sure! (A nice follow up to one I read a few years ago: How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization.)
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