An inspiring book about a woman who has endured much. Growing up poverty-stricken in Dublin the family lives under the cloud of their fathers alcoholism and resulting domestic violence. Her mother dies when the children are still very young and her father abandons them. They are separated and end up in Catholic orphanages where Christina is again mistreated. Later Christina suffers a violent rape at the hands of four men and then marriage to a man who abuses her, resulting in her admission to a mental health hospital. Many years later she manages to leave her husband and follow her dream of helping the street children of Vietnam. What she has achieved is remarkable. ( )

The first half of the book is Christina Noble's life story, of growing up in Dublin in poverty with a family under the cloud of domestic violence & alcohol, of her mother dying when Christina was a girl, her father abandoning her and her siblings, thus ensuring they were put in "Catholic orphan homes". The mistreatment she suffered there, escaping finally to live on the streets. Her violent rape and later marriage to a man who beat her and caused her to be admitted into a mental hospital. For a woman with barely an education she survived all that and went on to start a Foundation to save and help street kids in Vietnam. Her vision keeps expanding and now encompasses Mongolia. see here;
http://www.cncf.org/en/home/index.php
While the writing isn't classic literature by any stretch of the imagination, her personal story makes up for it so I have given it 4 stars. Don't expect to be dry eyed, or unshocked, some of the horrific descriptions rival anything one has read before.
The 2nd half of the book details her work in Vietnam and how she managed to achieve it. Check out her website. There are many ways to help.

This woman's childhood in Dublin in the 1940's and 50's would make stones cry. Am halfway through, she's not yet in Vietnam saving orphans but I've shed many a tear so far. ( )

One amazing woman, who manages to retain her spirit, after an horrendous first thirty years of her life. Inspiring and admirable. ( )

An uplifting book. Well done ( )

Finished Christina Noble's 'Bridge Across My Sorrows' this morning - an odd departure for me. I would recommend it for anyone into strong contemporary characters as she is certainly that. It's not meant to be a literary wonder, so there's nothing to say about the style except that it is direct. I was pleased to end the book with a sense of having met an honest* extraordinary unapologetic woman rather than feeling preached at, and to have had her facts illustrated to me rather than being plunged into a sensationalising melodramatic account. Her early life was so painful, and familiar in a way after books like Angela's Ashes or The Butcher Boy, that there's clearly no need for sensationalising.

*(with one or two slight hiccups: see last para of this post!)

I've decided to press on and read her follow-up 'Mama Tina', before diving back into 'proper literature', because she deserves the attention and time.

Fingers crossed....

I do tend to fret about the credibility of characters' finances in books. I find it a distraction like any other characteristic of books that just doesn't ring true. Actually, 'Bridge Across My Sorrows' does the same in part, where at the beginning CN says she arrived in Vietnam with no money, and then later it turns into 'a few hundred pounds', and the family living in poverty in Dublin seem to keep burning their last bit of furniture and yet there's repeatedly a last remaining chair. ( )