BIBLIO is the largest independent book marketplace in the world, with over 100 million books.

Skip to content

Running to the Fire: An American Missionary Comes of Age in Revolutionary
Stock photo: cover may vary

Running to the Fire: An American Missionary Comes of Age in Revolutionary Ethiopia Paperback - 2015

by Tim Bascom

Add to wish list

Reader reviews for Running to the Fire: An American Missionary Comes of Age in Revolutionary Ethiopia

Write a review for this book

There are no reviews for this book yet. Be the first to write a review!

Your review will be anonymous unless you login or create an account first.

Overall rating
Remember: You’re rating the book as a work, not the seller or the condition of the specific copy you purchased!

Important Terms and Guidelines

  • Please focus on the book’s content and context. Also, add any personal comments as to how you enjoyed the book. Substantiate your likes and dislikes. You may make comparisons to other books.
  • Reviews must be at least 140 characters in length.
  • Please do not reveal critical plot elements.
  • This is not a help line. Contact customer support if you need help.
Your review must not include:
  • Obscenities, discriminatory language, or other insulting language not suitable for public domain
  • Advertisements, “spam” content, or references to other products, offers or websites.
  • Email addresses, URLs, phone numbers, physical addresses or other contact information.
  • Overly critical comments about other reviews or reviewers
  • Time-sensitive material (i.e. promotional tours, seminars, lectures, etc.)
  • Availability, price, or alternative ordering/shipping information

From the publisher

In the streets of Addis Ababa in 1977, shop-front posters illustrate Uncle Sam being strangled by an Ethiopian revolutionary, parliamentary leaders are executed, student protesters are gunned down, and Christian mission converts are targeted as imperialistic sympathizers. Into this world arrives sixteen-year-old Tim Bascom, whose missionary parents have brought their family from a small town in Kansas straight into Colonel Mengistu's Marxist "Red Terror." Here they plan to work alongside a tiny remnant of western missionaries who trust that God will somehow keep them safe.

Running to the Fire focuses on the turbulent year the Bascom family experienced upon traveling into revolutionary Ethiopia. The teenage Bascom finds a paradoxical exhilaration in living so close to constant danger. At boarding school in Addis Ababa, where dorm parents demand morning devotions and forbid dancing, Bascom bonds with other youth due to a shared sense of threat. He falls in love for the first time, but the young couple is soon separated by the politics that affect all their lives. Across the country, missionaries are being held under house arrest while communist cadres seize their hospitals and schools. A friend's father is imprisoned as a suspected CIA agent; another is killed by raiding Somalis.

Throughout, the teenaged Bascom struggles with his faith and his role within the conflict as a white American Christian missionary's child. Reflecting back as an adult, he explores the historical, cultural, and religious contexts that led to this conflict, even though in doing so he is forced to ask himself questions that are easier left alone. Why, he wonders, did he find such strange fulfillment in being young and idealistic in the middle of what was essentially a kind of holy war?

Details

  • Title Running to the Fire: An American Missionary Comes of Age in Revolutionary Ethiopia
  • Author Tim Bascom
  • Binding Paperback
  • Pages 264
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher University of Iowa Press
  • Publication date 2015
  • ISBN 9781609383282 / 1609383281
  • Weight 0.81 lbs (0.37 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.1 x 5.75 x 0.8 in (23.11 x 14.61 x 2.03 cm)
  • Category Biography / Autobiography
  • Library of Congress subjects Americans - Ethiopia, Ethiopia - Description and travel
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2014034806
  • Dewey Decimal Code B

About the author

Tim Bascom is the author of the novel Squatters' Rites, the essay collection The Comfort Trap, and the memoir Chameleon Days: An American Boyhood in Ethiopia, which won the Bakeless Literary Prize in Nonfiction. Excerpts from Chameleon Days won the Editor's Prize from The Missouri Review and were included in The Best American Travel Writing. Bascom is an MFA graduate of the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa and has published in an array of literary journals and commercial magazines, including North American Review, Witness, Creative Nonfiction, and The Christian Science Monitor. He is currently the Director of Creative Writing at Waldorf College and lives in Forest City, Iowa.
Back to top↑

More Copies for Sale

Running to the Fire : An American Missionary Comes of Age in Revolutionary Ethiopia
Stock photo: cover may vary

Running to the Fire : An American Missionary Comes of Age in Revolutionary Ethiopia

by Tim Bascom

  • Used
  • Good
  • Paperback
Condition
Good
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781609383282 / 1609383281
Quantity available
1
Seller
ThriftBooks
Biblio Top Seller
Item price
A$9.54
Free Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
University of Iowa Press, 2015. Paperback. Good. Disclaimer:A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact. The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include previous owner inscriptions.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$9.54
Free Delivery to USA
Running to the Fire: An American Missionary Comes of Age in Revolutionary Ethiopia
Stock photo: cover may vary

Running to the Fire: An American Missionary Comes of Age in Revolutionary Ethiopia

by Tim Bascom

  • Used
  • Very good
  • Paperback
Condition
Very good
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781609383282 / 1609383281
Quantity available
1
Seller
ThriftBooks
Biblio Top Seller
Item price
A$9.54
Free Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
University of Iowa Press, 2015. Paperback. Very Good. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$9.54
Free Delivery to USA
Running to the Fire: An American Missionary Comes of Age in Revolutionary Ethiopia
Stock photo: cover may vary

Running to the Fire: An American Missionary Comes of Age in Revolutionary Ethiopia

by Bascom, Tim

  • Used
  • Paperback
Condition
New
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781609383282 / 1609383281
Quantity available
1
Seller
ThriftBooks
Biblio Top Seller
Item price
A$9.54
Free Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
University of Iowa Press, 2015. Paperback. Like New. Pages are clean and are not marred by notes or folds of any kind. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$9.54
Free Delivery to USA
Running to the Fire: An American Missionary Comes of Age in Revolutionary Ethiopia (Sightline Books)
Stock photo: cover may vary

Running to the Fire: An American Missionary Comes of Age in Revolutionary Ethiopia (Sightline Books)

by Bascom, Tim

  • Used
  • Paperback
  • first
Condition
Used
Edition
1
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781609383282 / 1609383281
Quantity available
1
Seller
Ergodebooks
Item price
A$15.49
A$21.68 Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
University Of Iowa Press, 2015-04-01. 1. paperback. Used: Good. 5.75x0.62x9.25. Buy with confidence. Excellent Customer Service & Return policy.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$15.49
A$21.68 Delivery to USA
RUNNING TO THE FIRE
Stock photo: cover may vary

RUNNING TO THE FIRE

by BASCOM,T

  • Used
  • Paperback
Condition
Good+
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781609383282 / 1609383281
Quantity available
1
Seller
Book Culture
Item price
A$21.61
A$8.24 Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
pb. Good+. All pages and cover are intact. Possible minor highlighting and marginalia. Ships from an indie bookstore in NYC.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$21.61
A$8.24 Delivery to USA
Running to the Fire: An American Missionary Comes of Age in Revolutionary Ethiopia (Sightline Books)
Stock photo: cover may vary

Running to the Fire: An American Missionary Comes of Age in Revolutionary Ethiopia (Sightline Books)

by Bascom, Tim

  • Used
  • Good
  • Paperback
Condition
Good
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781609383282 / 1609383281
Quantity available
1
Seller
Bonita
Item price
A$43.20
Free Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
paperback. Good. Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. May be an ex-library book.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$43.20
Free Delivery to USA
Running to the Fire: An American Missionary Comes of Age in Revolutionary Ethiopia (Sightline Books)
Stock photo: cover may vary

Running to the Fire: An American Missionary Comes of Age in Revolutionary Ethiopia (Sightline Books)

by Bascom, Tim

  • New
  • Paperback
  • first
Condition
New
Edition
1
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781609383282 / 1609383281
Quantity available
6
Seller
Ergodebooks
Item price
A$116.84
A$21.68 Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
University Of Iowa Press, 2015-04-01. 1. paperback. New. 5.75x0.62x9.25. Buy with confidence. Excellent Customer Service & Return policy.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$116.84
A$21.68 Delivery to USA
Show all copies
Back to top↑

Please wait a moment while we load the requested page.