"With Two Souls" is a moving and inspiring memoir co-authored by Indie McDowell and Atsede Kidane. The book tells the story of Atsede's journey from a small village in Ethiopia to the United States, where she faces the challenges of starting a new life and dealing with the trauma of her past.

Atsede's story is one of resilience and determination, as she overcomes poverty, discrimination, and abuse to become a successful businesswoman and advocate for human rights. Her experiences are brought to life through vivid and emotive storytelling, and her courage and strength shine through on every page.

The book is also a testament to the power of friendship and the importance of supporting one another through difficult times. McDowell's role as a friend and mentor to Atsede is a central theme of the book, and their relationship is a source of hope and inspiration.

Throughout "With Two Souls," Atsede shares her insights into Ethiopian culture and the challenges faced by women and girls in her home country. She also speaks candidly about her experiences with domestic violence and sexual assault, shining a light on the pervasive issue of gender-based violence around the world.

Overall, "With Two Souls" is a powerful and important memoir that will stay with readers long after they've turned the final page. It is a story of hope, resilience, and the human spirit, and a reminder that no matter how difficult life may seem, there is always a path forward.

'With Two Souls' by Indie McDowell and Atsede Kidane is a collection of autobiographical stories from the perspecitve of the authors detailing their experiences as midwives in rural Ethopia. As you can imagine the experiences detailed are sometimes difficult but always interesting.

The cultural differences between Ethopia and the UK are the main draw of the text. Obviously those differences can be quite wide although, in the end, we find that pregnant women are pregnant women no matter the country. However the dual narratives of Indie (with a UK background) and Atsede (with a rural Ethopian background) make the book much more interesting than a book written by just one of these authors would be. Atsede provides cultural insights while Indie asks the questions that I would probably find myself asking.

On the other hand, I did find this made the second half of the chapters a little difficult to get through. The structure of each chapter first follows Indie, and the second half retells the events from Atsede's perspective. Often this does give us new information and a new perspective but, as you already know the outcome of events, I found myself putting the book down during this break in perspecitves and finding it difficult to pick up again.

Overall, this is definitely worth the read although the pacing of the dual narrative does let it down in parts.

There were elements to this book that I thoroughly enjoyed and found really fascinating. The biologist and parent in me was fascinated by the stories of childbirth and all the various things that could happen to effect the birth or survival of a baby. I also found the differences between British and Ethiopian cultures very interesting and the impact this had on the experience of childbirth.
I struggled a bit with the length. It started to feel like a bit of a slog but generally a really interesting read.