In Resilience in South Sudanese Women: Hope for Daughters of the Nile, Godriver Wanga-Odhiambo begins by providing a rich account of Sudan's historical and successively repressive policies toward South Sudan. The next section focuses on a thorough gender-sensitive description of the fear, humiliation and insecurity found among female inhabitants of refugee camps. She offers culturally informed insight into refugee camp management, placement and organisation. Wanga-Odhiambo then presents practical suggestions to transcend the identified problems with refugee camps, placing emphasis on women's empowerment tools such as training and skills development, which facilitate self-reliance – the ultimate goal. She goes on to give a comprehensive overview of the strategies women use to cope with the extraordinary burdens they endure and the resilience they demonstrate as they transition into the circumstances of their new lives. Social networks among women and small-scale economic ventures are key to supporting the ability of women to cope with displacement. Wanga-Odhiambo concludes with real-life stories of South Sudanese women, displaced as a result of civil conflict, as a testimony of their resilience. The stories illustrate that these women retain their cultural roots and identity while embracing change. This makes them more than strong; perhaps it is in the realm of heroic.

This book is unique in two ways. The holistic assessment of South Sudanese women's experiences as a result of conflict and displacement offers clarity on women's experiences in refugee camps in general and sheds light on how they are different to men as well as the specific nature of the identified challenges. The second distinct contribution is the form of rare insight into the very real, daily challenges these women face in foreign countries as workers and later as refugee immigrants. This realism toward the daily struggles women face is reviewed in the context of the adaptive strategies they employ such as innovation and resilience through cooperation.

The book is historically informed, empirically supported and narrated with an emotion that is almost tangible. The book's central contribution is two-fold. It provides a policy-relevant exposition of daily life in refugee camps from a culturally sensitive, gender perspective. It also sheds light on where the strengths of displaced women lie and the precise areas they need support in to become self-sufficient, which contains significant policy dimensions, too. The ideal audience for the book would be anyone who sought to learn about ways to improve the programming and management of refugee camps. The great deal of cultural insight given would certainly be useful in terms of devising effective refugee camp management strategies and programmes to support women not living in the camps. The book's recommendations would be valuable to practitioners working in the humanitarian field or those working with new immigrants arriving to countries as a result of civil strife and conflict. There is also considerable scholarly merit in the book's review of South Sudan's history from a South Sudanese perspective. Wanga-Odhiambo did a fine job of looking back into South Sudan's history, describing its corollary as the present challenge and highlighting the powerful capacity of women to transcend the many obstacles they face – a willingness to adapt and innovate.