Living in Limbo: a reading list for Refugee Week 2020
Cover illustration: 'LandEscape' created by Jal Kong age 15 from South Sudan, currently living in Kakuma refugee camp. Contents
Fiction for Younger Readers ...... 2
Fiction for Young Adults ...... 7
Adult Fiction ...... 12
Non-Fiction ...... 16
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Fiction for Younger Readers
Nadine Dreams of Home by Bernard Ashley
Age recommendation 7+
A touching yet serious story with an ultimately uplifting ending. Nadine doesn't like her new life. She doesn't speak the language, she can't understand what's going on, and more than anything, it's just not home. Especially since her father isn't here with them in the UK. But it just wasn't safe in Goma anymore, not with the uprising and the violence of the rebel soldiers. So, Nadine tries to find something in her new life that will remind her of the happy memories of Africa. Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers aged 7+
Give Me Shelter edited by Tony Bradman
Age recommendation 9+
The phrase 'asylum-seeker' is one we see in the media all the time. It stimulates fierce and controversial debate, in arguments about migration, race and religion. The movement of people from poor or struggling countries to those where there may be opportunities for a better life is a constant in human history, but it is something with particular relevance in our own time. This collection of short stories shows us people who have been forced to leave their homes or families to seek help and shelter elsewhere. Some are about young people travelling to other countries, others are concerned with children left behind when parents are forced to flee. These are stories about physical and emotional suffering, but also about the humanity of some people from host countries who act with generosity and sympathy.
Running on the Roof of the World by Jess Butterworth
Age recommendation 9+
There are two words that are banned in Tibet. Two words that can get you locked in prison without a second thought. I watch the soldiers tramping away and call the words after them. 'Dalai Lama.'
Tash has to follow many rules to survive in Tibet, a country occupied by Chinese soldiers. But when a man sets himself on fire in protest and soldiers seize Tash's parents, she and her best friend Sam must break the rules. They are determined to escape Tibet - and seek the help of the Dalai Lama himself in India. And so, with a backpack of Tash's father's mysterious papers and two trusty yaks by their side, their extraordinary journey across the mountains begins.
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Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Eoin Donkin
Age recommendation 10+
This is a powerful and timely story about one boy's epic journey across Africa to Europe, a graphic novel for all children with glorious colour artwork throughout. Ebo is alone. His sister left months ago. Now his brother has disappeared too, and Ebo knows it can only be to make the hazardous journey to Europe. Ebo's epic journey takes him across the Sahara Desert to the dangerous streets of Tripoli, and finally out to the merciless sea. But with every step he holds on to his hope for a new life, and a reunion with his sister.
Christophe’s Story by Nicki Cornwell and Karin Littlewood
Age recommendation 8+
This is the story of a young Rwandan refugee now living in the UK. Christophe is having trouble getting used to his new school, new language and new life. Life has been very lonely for him. Most of all he misses his grandfather who they had to leave behind. His teacher persuades Christophe to share his story with his classmates - so he tells them of the terrifying day the soldiers came to his house and killed his baby brother. The spoken story fills the air and his classmates are spellbound. But when his teacher asks him to write it down and read it out in assembly, Christophe is horrified. You lose the fire from a story once you write it down! But with the help of his new friends, his family and the memory of his beloved grandfather, Christophe finds a way to break through the barriers - and share his story with everyone.
Boy 87 by Ele Fountain
Age recommendation 10+
Shif is just an ordinary boy who likes chess, maths and racing his best friend home from school. But one day, soldiers with guns come to his door - and he knows that he is no longer safe. Shif is forced to leave his mother and little sister and embark on a dangerous journey; a journey through imprisonment and escape, new lands and strange voices, and a perilous crossing by land and sea. He will encounter cruelty and kindness; he will become separated from the people he loves. Boy 87 is a gripping, uplifting tale of one boy's struggle for survival; it echoes the story of young people all over the world today.
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The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon
Age recommendation 10+
Sometimes, at night, the dirt outside turns into a beautiful ocean. As red as the sun and as deep as the sky. Yet the ocean is something Subhi has never seen and the sky only as wide as the he can see. Born in a refugee camp, all Subhi knows of the world is that he's at least 19 fence diamonds high, the nice Jackets never stay long, and at night he dreams that the sea finds its way to his tent, bringing with it unusual treasures. Then, one day it brings him Jimmie. Carrying a notebook that she's unable to read and wearing a sparrow made out of bone around her neck - both talismans of her family's past and the mother she's lost - Jimmie strikes up an unlikely friendship with Subhi beyond the fence. As he reads aloud the tale of how Jimmie's family came to be, both children discover the importance of their own stories in writing their futures.
Azzi in Between by Sarah Garland
Age recommendation 6+
Azzi and her parents are in danger. They have to leave their home and escape to another country on a frightening journey by car and boat. In the new country they must learn to speak a new language, find a new home and Azzi must start a new school. With a kind helper at the school, Azzi begins to learn English and understand that she is not the only one who has had to flee her home. She makes a new friend, and with courage and resourcefulness, begins to adapt to her new life. But Grandma has been left behind and Azzi misses her more than anything. Will Azzi ever see her grandma again? Drawing on her own experience of working among refugee families, renowned author and illustrator Sarah Garland tells, with tenderness and humour, an exciting adventure story to be enjoyed by readers of all ages.
The Island by Armin Greder
Age recommendation 9+
In the morning the people of the island found a man sitting on the shore, there where fate and the ocean currents had set him and his frail raft in the night. When he saw them coming towards him, he rose to his feet. He was not like them. This internationally acclaimed, award-winning picture book is astonishing, powerful and timely.
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Oranges in No-Man’s Land by Elizabeth Laird
Age recommendation 8+
Since her father left Lebanon to find work and her mother tragically died in a shell attack, ten-year-old Ayesha has been living in the bomb-ravaged city of Beirut with her granny and her two younger brothers. The city has been torn in half by civil war and a desolate, dangerous no man's land divides the two sides. Only militiamen and tanks dare enter this deadly zone, but when Granny falls desperately ill, Ayesha sets off on a terrifying journey to reach a doctor living in enemy territory.
Welcome to Nowhere by Elizabeth Laird
Age recommendation 11+
Twelve-year-old Omar and his brothers and sisters were born and raised in the beautiful and bustling city of Bosra, Syria. Omar doesn't care about politics - all he wants is to grow up to become a successful businessman who will take the world by storm. But when his clever older brother, Musa, gets mixed up with some young political activists, everything changes . . .Before long, bombs are falling, people are dying, and Omar and his family have no choice but to flee their home with only what they can carry. Yet no matter how far they run, the shadow of war follows them - until they have no other choice than to attempt the dangerous journey to escape their homeland altogether. But where do you go when you can't go home?
A Story Like the Wind by Gill Lewis, illustrated by Jo Weaver
Age recommendation 9+
A beautifully illustrated story of freedom, music, and seeking refuge. A small group of refugees is crowded on to a boat on the sea. They share their stories as the boat travels towards the dream of safety and freedom. One boy, Rami, has brought his violin, and his story of how the violin was invented, and of a stallion that could run like the wind, weaves through the other stories, bringing them all together into a celebration of hope and of the power of music and story. A beautifully illustrated fable for all who strive to understand, and to stand together with, those around them.
A Dangerous Crossing by Jane Mitchell
Age recommendation 9+
Ghalib doesn't want to leave his home in Syria. But the city has become too dangerous, and his family has no choice but to flee. Together they make their way through Syria to the Turkish border, where Ghalib gets separated from his family. Stricken with grief and fear, fighting cold, pain and hunger, he manages to make it to a refugee camp in Turkey. Ghalib is safe for now, but life in a refugee camp is wretched and hopeless, and this boy's journey in search of safety is far from over. Based on true accounts and real Syrian children, A Dangerous Crossing is the story of one boy's search for refuge.
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Shadow by Michael Morpurgo
Age recommendation 9+
Never have Aman and his mother needed a friend more than when a Springer Spaniel appears - thin and war-ravaged - in the mouth of their Afghan cave. Nursed back to health by Aman, the dog becomes a constant companion, a shadow, and that's what Aman decides to call her. But life in Afghanistan becomes more dangerous by the moment. Eventually, Aman, his mother and Shadow find the courage to embark upon the treacherous journey from war- torn Afghanistan to the safely of a relative's home in Manchester, England. But how far can Shadow lead them? And in this terrifying new world, is anywhere really safe...?
The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q Raúf
Age recommendation 7+
Overall Winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2019
A story of friendship, hope and the importance of kindness, The Boy at the Back of the Class is a story full of heart and humour, told from a unique perspective. When a new boy joins their class, a group of children try to befriend him. They soon learn that Ahmet is a refugee and has been separated from his family. None of the grown-ups seem to be able to help him, so the friends come up with a daring plan, embarking on an extraordinary adventure.
Onjali Q. Raúf is Founder and CEO of the London based human rights organisation Making Herstory, working in partnership with other movements to end the abuse, trafficking and enslavement of women and girls in the UK and beyond. Based in part on the stories she encountered when working in refugee camps, The Boy at the Back of the Class is a remarkable debut that deserves to be ranked as a modern classic.
Child I by Steve Tasane
Age recommendation 9+
A group of undocumented children with letters for names, are stuck living in a refugee camp, with stories to tell but no papers to prove them. As they try to forge a new family amongst themselves, they also long to keep memories of their old identities alive. Will they be heard and believed? And what will happen to them if they aren't? An astonishing piece of writing that will enchant and intrigue children.
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Fiction for Young Adults
Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan
Age recommendation 15+
These extraordinary stories centre on African conflicts as seen through the eyes of children and describes their resilience and endurance in heart- breaking detail. From child trafficking to inter-religious conflicts, Uwem Akpan reveals in beautiful prose the resilience and endurance of children faced with the harsh consequences of deprivation and terror.
Jackdaw Summer by David Almond
Age recommendation 12+
Every summer Liam and Max roam the wild countryside of Northumberland - but this year things are different. One hot summer's day a jackdaw leads the two boys into an ancient farmhouse where they find a baby, wrapped in a blanket, with a scribbled note pinned to it: PLESE LOOK AFTER HER RITE. THIS IS A CHILDE OF GOD. And so begins Jackdaw Summer. A summer when friendships are tested. A summer when lines between good and bad are blurred. A summer that Liam will never forget...
Asylum by Rachel Anderson
Age recommendation 13+
Set in an about-to-be-demolished high-rise block of flats, various characters have arrived from a variety of situations; their lives and their stories, interweave, change and affect each other, and travel towards deeply moving, often funny, happy and painful outcomes. At the core of the story are two asylum seekers: All fifteen-year-old Sunday wanted was a country that was democratic and respectful of human life. All eight-year-old Rosa wanted was somewhere safe, away from the bad things of the past. Through their eyes, ideas of Britain and belonging are explored. Moving, thoughtful, outstanding and unforgettable.
Little Soldier by Bernard Ashley
Age recommendation 12+
When Kaninda survives a brutal attack on his village in East Africa he joins the rebel army, where he's trained to carry weapons, and use them. But aid workers take him to London, to a new family and a comprehensive school. Clan and tribal conflicts are everywhere, and on the streets it's estate versus estate, urban tribe against urban tribe. All Kaninda wants it to get back to his own war and take revenge on his enemies. But together with Laura Rose, the daughter of his new family, he is drawn into a dangerous local conflict that is spiralling out of control.
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Alpha: Abidjan to Garde du Nord by Bessora and Barroux
Age recommendation 15+
Alpha Coulibaly is emblematic of the refugee crisis today - just one of millions on the move, at the mercy of people traffickers, endlessly frustrated, endangered and exploited as he attempts to re-join his family, already in Europe. With a visa, Alpha's journey would take a matter of hours; without one he is adrift for eighteen months. Along the way he meets an unforgettable cast of characters, each one giving another human face to the crisis. The book is presented in graphic novel format, with artwork created in cheap felt-tip pen and wash, materials Alpha himself might be able to access.
Looking at the Stars by Jo Cotterill
Age recommendation 12+
Amina's homeland has been ravaged by war, and her family is devastated . . .The women of the family - Amina, her two sisters and their mother - have no choice but to leave their hometown, along with thousands of others, and head for a refugee camp. But there are even more challenges ahead . . .
One Crow Alone by Sophie Crockett
Age recommendation 12+
The long, bitter winters are getting worse, and a state of emergency has been declared across Europe. In Poland, the villagers are subject to frequent power cuts and fuel shortages. After the death of her grandmother and the evacuation of her village, fifteen-year-old Magda joins forces with the arrogant, handsome Ivan and smuggles her way onto a truck bound for London - where she hopes to find her mother. But London, when they reach it, is a nightmarish world, far from welcoming. Riots are commonplace and the growing chaos is exploited by criminals and terrorists alike. Magda's mother is not to be found, and as the lost girl struggles to come to terms with her changing situation, she eventually becomes friends with a rag-tag group of travellers planning a new home and future. They will need all the cunning and know-how they possess as they realise that the frozen wilderness of Britain has become just as lawless as the city.
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The Ones that Disappeared by Zana Fraillon
Age recommendation 12+
Kept by a ruthless gang, three children manage to escape from slavery. But freedom isn't just waiting on the outside. Separated, scared and looking after a small child, Esra will do whatever she can to reunite with her friend Miran, who was captured by the police - the police who she mustn't trust. Hiding in the shadows of the forest, Esra is found by a local boy, a boy with his own story. Together they will create a man out of mud. A man who will come to life and lead them through a dark labyrinth of tunnels until they finally have the courage the step above ground. Until they finally have the courage to speak their story. Until they finally have the courage to be free.
In the Sea There Are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda
Age recommendation 12+
I read somewhere that the decision to emigrate comes from a need to breathe. The hope of a better life is stronger than any other feeling. My mother decided it was better to know I was in danger far from her; but on the way to a different future, than to know I was in danger near her; but stuck in the same old fear. At the age of ten, Enaiatollah Akbari was left alone to fend for himself. This is the heart-breaking, unforgettable story of his journey from Afghanistan to Italy in an attempt to find a safe place to live.
Hidden by Miriam Halahmy
Age recommendation 12+
An exciting as well as thought-provoking novel about a teen who finds an injured illegal immigrant and must make a complex moral decision about his fate. For fourteen-year-old Alix, life on Hayling Island off the coast of England seems insulated from problems such as war, terrorism and refugees. But when Alix and her friend Samir go to the beach and pull a drowning man out of the incoming tide, her world changes. Mohammed, an illegal immigrant and student, has been tortured by rebels in Iraq for helping the allied forces and has spent all his money to escape. Desperate not to be deported, Mohammed's destiny now lies in Alix's hands, and she is faced with the biggest moral dilemma of her life.
If You Were Me by Sam Hepburn
Age recommendation 12+
Not long after Aliya's family escapes Afghanistan for Britain, her brother is accused of a bomb attack. Aliya is sure of his innocence, but when plumber's son Dan finds a gun in their bathroom, what's she to think? Dan has his own reasons for staying silent: he's worried the gun might have something to do with his dad. Thrown together by chance, they set out to uncover a tangled and twisted truth.
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Secrets in the Fire by Henning Mankell
Age recommendation 13+
'It was the most dangerous thing she could have done. But Sofia was only playing - pushing and shoving and laughing with her sister as they ran out to the fields one pearly dawn. Sofia didn't mean to step off the path. She didn't mean to tread on the monster, the monster that lurked, waiting, under the ground. 'Secrets in the Fire is based on the true story of an indomitable young girl in war-torn Mozambique. In beautifully spare, unsentimental language, Henning Mankell tells how Sofia transcends the brutality and horror that have shattered her childhood and builds a new future out of the ruins of her life. But if it hadn't been for the strength she drew from the fire, from the secrets she saw in the flames, Sofia might not have found the courage to survive. A deeply moving and unforgettable story.
Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick
Age recommendation 15+
Eleven-year-old Arn is walking through the countryside in Cambodia. His whole town is walking with him. They're walking into one of the most tragic moments of history: the Killing Fields. Music will save him. Hope, luck and kindness will save him. This is his story. Based on the true story of Arn Chorn-Pond, this is an achingly raw and powerful novel about a child of war who becomes a man of peace.
The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo
Age recommendation 11+
This is the story of 12-year-old Sade and her brother Femi who flee to Britain from Nigeria. Their father is a political journalist who refuses to stop criticising the military rulers in Nigeria. Their mother is killed and they are sent to London, with their father promising to follow. Abandoned at Victoria Station by the woman paid to bring them to England as her children, Sade and Femi find themselves alone in a new, often hostile, environment. Seen through the eyes of Sade, the novel explores what it means to be classified as 'illegal' and the difficulties which come with being a refugee.
Salt to the Sea by Ruth Sepetys
Age recommendation 15+
It's early 1945 and a group of people trek across Germany, bound together by their desperation to reach the ship that can take them away from the war- ravaged land. Four young people, each haunted by their own dark secret, narrate their unforgettable stories...Ruta Sepetys devoted three years of research into what still remains the worst maritime disaster in history, the sinking of the German military transport ship the Wilhelm Gustloff in 1945. Some 9,400 lives were lost. Salt to the Sea picks up on four of those lives, a group of young people desperate to flee Germany by any means, even if this is a dangerously overcrowded vessel in a Baltic port.
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The Survival Game by Nicky Singer
Age recommendation 12+
Mhairi Anne Bain owns only two things: a gun with no bullets and her identity papers. The world is a shell of what it once was. Now, you must prove yourself worthy of existence at every turn, at every border checkpoint. And if you are going to survive, your instincts will become your most valuable weapon. Mhairi has learnt the importance of living her own story, of speaking to no one. But then she meets a young boy with no voice at all and finds herself risking everything to take him to safety. And so Mhairi and the silent boy travel the road north. But there are rumours that things in Scotland have changed since she has been away. What Mhairi finds there is shocking and heart-breaking, but might finally re-connect her to her sense of self and to the possibility of love. An extraordinary story about survival and what it costs, about the power of small kindnesses to change everything.
Now is the Time for Running by Michael Williams
Age recommendation 12+
Deo is a great footballer, a fierce protector of his older brother, Innocent. His brother is easily nervous, easily happy but good at keeping score on the dusty fields of Zimbabwe where the boys play. Then Mugabe's soldiers come, destroying the only home the boys have known. Now, Deo has nothing but his brother, and a football stuffed with billions of worthless dollars. And so starts their journey to find their father. But with soldiers everywhere, they have only one chance to cross the border, one chance to escape. In face of such a challenge, it is Deo's brotherly love that endures, his belief that he will lead them both to safety. Michael Williams's is a masterful storyteller who pulls you along the journey of a lifetime. Deo and Innocent's journey is a universal story of hope in the face of despair, and the search for a better life.
Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah
Age recommendation 13+
Acclaimed performance poet and novelist Benjamin Zephaniah's honest, wry and poignant story of a young refugee left in London is of even more power and pertinence today than when it was first published. Life is not safe for Alem. His father is Ethiopian, his mother Eritrean. Their countries are at war and Alem is welcome in neither place. So Alem is excited to spend a holiday in London with his father - until he wakes up to find him gone. What seems like a betrayal is in fact an act of love, but now Alem is alone in a strange country, and he must forge his own path ...
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Adult Fiction Harbor by Lorraine Adams
A young stowaway, Aziz, jumps into the icy waters of Boston Harbor and swims ashore. He scrabbles to find shelter with fellow immigrants, tries to live right, but quickly learns that the normal rules don't apply to those who have no legal existence. Just as Aziz allows himself to forget the atrocities he fled back home in Algeria and to imagine a brighter future, the FBI starts taking an interest in his circle's activities, and all assumptions - his and ours - dissolve into urgent questions: how are terrorists identified? who watches them? and how do they live in our midst and how do they evade us?
Silence is my Mother Tongue by Sulaiman Addonia
Saba arrives in an East African refugee camp as a young girl, devastated to have been wrenched from school and forced to abandon her books as her family flees to safety. In this unfamiliar, crowded and often hostile space, she must carve out a new existence. As she struggles to maintain her sense of self, she remains fiercely protective of her mute brother, Hagos—each sibling resisting the roles gender and society assign. Through a cast of complex, beautifully drawn characters, Sulaiman Addonia questions what it means to be a man, to be a woman, to be an individual when circumstance has forced the loss of all that makes a home or a future.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
One night in 1939, Josef Kavalier shuffles into his cousin Sam Clay's cramped New York bedroom, his nerve-racking escape from Prague finally achieved. Little does he realise that this is the beginning of an extraordinary friendship and even more fruitful business partnership. Together, they create a comic strip called `The Escapist', its superhero a Nazi-busting saviour who liberates the oppressed around the world. `The Escapist' makes their fortune, but Joe can think of only one thing: how can he effect a real-life escape, and free his family from the tyranny of Hitler? Michael Chabon's exceptional novel is a thrilling tight-rope walk between high comedy and bitter tragedy, and confirms his position as one of the most inventive and daring of contemporary American writers. In Joe Kavalier and Sam Clay, he has created two unforgettable characters bound together by love, family and cartoons.
The Other Hand by Chris Cleave
This novel, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and Costa Novel of the Year, tells the story of a young Nigerian refugee and the English woman whose life she changes when she shows up after two years behind razor wire in a detention centre—and after their first horrific meeting on an African beach. There’s a lot of horror in this book but there’s a lot of goodness, too.
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What is the What by Dave Eggers
Valentino Achak Deng is just a boy when conflict separates him from his family and forces him to leave his small Sudanese village, joining thousands of other orphans on their long, long walk to Ethiopia, where they find safety - for a time. Along the way Valentino encounters enemy soldiers, liberation rebels and deadly militias, hyenas and lions, disease and starvation. But there are experiences ahead that will test his spirit in even greater ways than these...Truly epic in scope, and told with expansive humanity, deep compassion and unexpected humour, What is the What is an eye-opening account of life amid the madness of war and an unforgettable tale of tragedy and triumph.
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Nadia and Saeed are two ordinary young people, attempting to do an extraordinary thing - to fall in love - in a world turned upside down. Theirs will be a love story but also a story about how we live now and how we might live tomorrow, of a world in crisis and two human beings travelling through it. Civil war has come to the city which Nadia and Saeed call home. Before long they will need to leave their motherland behind - when the streets are no longer useable and the unknown is safer than the known. They will join the great outpouring of people fleeing a collapsing city, hoping against hope, looking for their place in the world... An extraordinary story of desire and hope, travelling from the Middle East to London and beyond, this is a love story that considers what makes ordinary people flee their homes and how the world might change if borders were broken down.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Independent Afghanistan, 1975: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must return to Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption.
Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini
On a moonlit beach a father cradles his sleeping son as they wait for dawn to break and a boat to arrive. He speaks to his boy of the long summers of his childhood, recalling his grandfather's house in Syria, the stirring of olive trees in the breeze, the bleating of his grandmother's goat, the clanking of her cooking pots. And he remembers, too, the bustling city of Homs with its crowded lanes, its mosque and grand souk, in the days before the sky spat bombs and they had to flee. When the sun rises they and those around them will gather their possessions and embark on a perilous sea journey in search of a new home.
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The Cage by Lloyd Jones
What does it mean to bear witness? In this fable-like novel, master storyteller and Booker Prize shortlisted author, Lloyd Jones tells a simple but profoundly unsettling tale about two men, fleeing for their lives, who arrive in a small country town. The townspeople want to know where the men have come from, what catastrophe they are fleeing and who they are, but the strangers are unable to speak of their trauma. Before long, the uncertain and wary hospitality shifts to suspicion and fear, and the care of the men slides into appalling cruelty. The Cage is about what it means to have nothing. It shows us, to devastating effect, what trust and fear mean, how compassion can turn to cruelty and why dignity and hope are essential to human survival.
The Optician of Lampedusa by Jane Kirby
Emma-Jane Kirby has reported extensively on the reality of mass migration today. In The Optician of Lampedusa she brings to life the moving testimony of an ordinary man whose late summer boat trip off a Sicilian island unexpectedly turns into a tragic rescue mission.
The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
From the winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Refugees gives voice to lives led between two worlds, the adopted homeland and the country of birth.
From a young Vietnamese refugee who suffers profound culture shock when he comes to live with two gay men in San Francisco, to a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia and starts to confuse her for a former lover, to a girl living in Ho Chi Minh City whose older half-sister comes back from America having seemingly accomplished everything she never will, the stories are a captivating testament to the dreams and hardships of immigration. The Refugees is a beautifully written and sharply observed book about the aspirations of those who leave one country for another, and the relationships and desires for self-fulfilment that define our lives.
Crossing by Pajtim Statovci
Bujar's world is collapsing. His father is dying and his homeland, Albania, bristles with hunger and unrest. When his fearless friend Agim is discovered wearing his mother's red dress and beaten with his father's belt, he persuades Bujar that there is no place for them in their country. Desperate for a chance to shape their own lives, they flee. This is the beginning of a journey across cities, borders and identities, from the bazaars of Tirana to the monuments of Rome and the drag bars of New York. It is also a search through shifting gender and social personae, for permission to leave their pasts behind, for acceptance and love.
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How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa
Souvankham Thammavongsa captures the day-to-day lives of immigrants and refugees in a nameless city, illuminating hopes, disappointments, love affairs, and above all, the pursuit of a place to belong. An ex-boxer turned nail salon worker falls for a pair of immaculate hands; a mother and daughter harvest earthworms in the middle of the night; a country music-obsessed housewife abandons her family for fantasy; and a young girl's love for her father transcends language. Uncannily and intimately observed, written with prose of exceptional precision, the stories in How to Pronounce Knife speak of modern location and dislocation, revealing lives lived in the embrace of isolation and severed history - but not without joy, humour, resilience, and constant wonder at the workings of the world.
The Hungry and the Fat by Timur Vermes
Refugee camps in Africa are swelling but Europe has closed its borders. The refugees have no future, no hope, and no money to pay the vast sums now demanded by people smugglers. But what they do have is time. When German model and star presenter Nadeche Hackenbusch comes to film at the largest of the camps, one young refugee sees a unique opportunity: to organise a march to Europe, in full view of the media. Viewers are gripped as the vast convoy moves closer, but the far right in Germany is regrouping and the government is at a loss. Which country will halt the refugees in their tracks? A devastating, close-to-the-knuckle satire about the haves and have- nots in our divided world by one of Europe's finest and most perceptive writers, in which an outlandish conceit follows a kind of impeccable logic to a devastating conclusion.
These are the Names by Tommy Wieringa
A border town on the steppe. A small group of emaciated and feral refugees appears out of nowhere, spreading fear and panic in the town. When police commissioner Pontus Beg orders their arrest, evidence of a murder is found in their luggage. As he begins to unravel the history of their hellish journey, it becomes increasingly intertwined with the search for his own origins that he has embarked upon. Now he becomes the group's inquisitor ...and, finally, something like their saviour. Beg's likeability as a character and his dry-eyed musings considering the nature of religion keep the reader pinned to the page from the start. At the same time, the apocalyptic atmosphere of the group's exodus across the steppes becomes increasingly vivid and laden with meaning as the novel proceeds, in seeming synchronicity with the development of Beg's character. With a rare blend of humour and wisdom, Tommy Wieringa links man's dark nature with the question of who we are and whether redemption is possible.
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Non-Fiction
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
The first-person account of a 26-year-old who fought in the war in Sierra Leone as a 12-year-old boy. What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived. Ishmael Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve in Sierra Leone, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found he was capable of truly terrible acts. This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heart-breaking honesty.
No Friend But the Mountains by Behrouz Boochani
In 2013, Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani sought asylum in Australia but was instead illegally imprisoned in the country's most notorious detention centre on Manus Island. This book is the result. Boochani spent nearly five years typing passages of this book one text at a time from a secret mobile phone in prison. Compiled and translated from Farsi, they form an incredible story of how escaping political persecution in Iran, he ended up trapped as a stateless person. This vivid, gripping portrait of his years of incarceration and exile shines devastating light on the fates of so many people, as borders close around the world. No Friend but the Mountains is both a brave act of witness and a moving testament to the humanity of all people, in the most extreme of circumstances.
The Best we Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir by Thi Bui
This critically acclaimed and beautifully illustrated emotional story is an evocative memoir about the search for a better future and a longing for the past. Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family, Bui documents the story of her family's daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s, and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves.
At the heart of Sui's story is a universal struggle: While adjusting to life as a first-time mother, she ultimately discovers what it means to be a parent - the endless sacrifices, the unnoticed gestures, and the depths of unspoken love. Despite how impossible it seems to take on the simultaneous roles of both parent and child, Bui pushes through.
With haunting, poetic writing and breath-taking art, she examines the strength of family, the importance of identity, and the meaning of home. In what Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen calls 'a book to break your heart and heal it,' The Best We Could Do brings to life Thi Sui's journey of understanding, and provides inspiration to all of those who search for a better future while longing for a simpler past.
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Antigona and Me by Kate Clanchy
One morning in London, two neighbours start to chat over the heads of their children. Kate Clanchy is a writer, privileged and sheltered, Antigona is a refugee from Kosovo. On instinct, Kate offers Antigona a job as a nanny, and Antigona, equally shrewdly, accepts. Over the next five years and a thousand cups of coffee Antigona's extraordinary story slowly emerges. She has escaped from a war, she has divorced a violent husband, but can she escape the harsh code she was brought up with, the Kanun of Lek? At the kitchen table where anything can be said, the women discover they have everything, as well as nothing, in common.
England: Poems from a School edited by Kate Clanchy
Oxford Spires Academy is a small comprehensive school with 30 languages - and one special focus: poetry. In the last five years, its students have won every prize going. They have been celebrated in the Guardian ('The Very Quiet Foreign Girls Poetry Group'), and the subject of a BBC Radio 3 documentary. In this unique anthology, their mentor and teacher prize-winning poet Kate Clanchy brings their poems together, allowing readers to see why their work has caused such a stir. By turns raw and direct, funny and powerful, lyrical and heart-breaking, they document the pain of migration and the exhilaration of building a new land, an England of a thousand voices. In England: Poems from a School, you will find poetry that is easy to read and hard to forget, as fresh, bright and present as the young migrants who produced it.
Refugee Tales volumes I – III edited by David Herd and Anna Pincus
Two unaccompanied children travel across the Mediterranean in an overcrowded boat that has been designed to only make it halfway across...
A 63-year-old man is woken one morning by border officers acting on a tip-off and, despite having paid taxes for 28 years, is suddenly cast into the detention system with no obvious means of escape...
An orphan whose entire life has been spent in slavery first on a Ghanaian farm, then as a victim of trafficking writes to the Home Office for help, only to be rewarded with a jail sentence and indefinite detention...
These are not fictions. Nor are they testimonies from some distant, brutal past, but the frighteningly common experiences of Europe s new underclass its refugees. While those with citizenship enjoy basic human rights (like the right not to be detained without charge for more than 14 days), people seeking asylum can be suspended for years in Kafka-esque uncertainty. Here, poets and novelists retell the stories of individuals who have direct experience of Britain s policy of indefinite immigration detention. Presenting their experiences anonymously, as modern-day counterparts to the pilgrims’ stories in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, this book offers rare, intimate glimpses into otherwise untold suffering. 'Refugee Tales is a wonderful way of re-humanising some of the most vulnerable and demonised people on the planet. This collection is both challenging and poignant. Readers will surely be moved to move their leaders to action.' - Shami Chakrabarti
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War Child by Emmanuel Jal
Emmanuel Jal was seven years old when he became a soldier and went into battle with the rebel army in Sudan's bloody civil war. Believing he was being sent to school, Emmanuel trekked his way to a refugee camp in Ethiopia where he became one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. After nearly five years of fighting, Emmanuel was smuggled into Kenya by Emma McCune, a British aid worker, and finally began to have a childhood and an education. When Emma died tragically, Emmanuel struggled to find purpose in life but eventually - through the power of prayer and music - he succeeded. From child soldier, to refugee, to rap star, War Child is one boy's incredible story of survival and triumph.
Violent Borders by Reece Jones
Forty thousand people died trying to cross international borders in the past decade, with the high- profile deaths along the shores of Europe only accounting for half of the grisly total. Reece Jones argues that these deaths are not exceptional, but rather the result of state attempts to contain populations and control access to resources and opportunities. "We may live in an era of globalization," he writes, "but much of the world is increasingly focused on limiting the free movement of people." In Violent Borders, Jones crosses the migrant trails of the world, documenting the billions of dollars spent on border security projects and their dire consequences for countless millions. While the poor are restricted by the lottery of birth to slum dwellings in the aftershocks of decolonization, the wealthy travel without constraint, exploiting pools of cheap labour and lax environmental regulations. With the growth of borders and resource enclosures, the deaths of migrants in search of a better life are intimately connected to climate change, environmental degradation, and the growth of global wealth inequality. With the growth of borders and resource enclosures, the deaths of migrants in search of a better life are intimately connected to climate change, environmental degradation, and the growth of global wealth inequality.
The New Odyssey by Patrick Kingsley
Europe is facing a wave of migration unmatched since the end of World War II - and no one has reported on this crisis in more depth or breadth than the Guardian's migration correspondent, Patrick Kingsley. Throughout 2015, Kingsley travelled to 17 countries along the migrant trail, meeting hundreds of refugees making epic odysseys across deserts, seas and mountains to reach the holy grail of Europe. This is Kingsley's unparalleled account of who these voyagers are. It's about why they keep coming, and how they do it. It's about the smugglers who help them on their way, and the coastguards who rescue them at the other end. The volunteers that feed them, the hoteliers that house them, and the border guards trying to keep them out. And the politicians looking the other way.
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Escaping War and Waves by Olivier Kugler
Olivier Kugler's series of brilliant drawings of refugees from Syria establishes this award-winning artist as one of the most important graphic reporters of our day. Collected here for the first time, the drawings in Escaping Wars and Waves document the lives of individuals and families Kugler met in Iraqi Kurdistan, the tourist island of Kos, and the jungle camp at Calais, mostly on commission for MSF. As well as his work with MSF, Kugler recorded the experiences of refugees in London, Birmingham and Simmozheim, the small village in Germany where he grew up. The stories he tells are often tragic but also uplifting, testimony to both human senselessness and resilience. Based on many interviews, thousands of reference photos, and an acute observation of the objects, locations and conversations making up our daily lives, the effects of what he records will be felt for decades to come.
Rescue: Refugees and the Political Crisis of our Time by David Miliband
We are in the midst of a global refugee crisis. Sixty five million people are fleeing for their lives. The choices are urgent, not just for them but for all of us. What can we possibly do to help? With compassion and clarity, David Miliband shows why we should care and how we can make a difference. He takes us from war zones in the Middle East to the heart of Europe to explain the crisis and show what can be done, not just by governments with the power to change policy but by citizens with the urge to change lives. His innovative and practical call to action shows that the crisis need not overwhelm us. Miliband says this is a fight to uphold the best of human nature in the face of rhetoric and policy that humour the worst. He defends the international order built by western leaders out of the ashes of the Second World War, but says now is the time for reform. Describing his family story as the son of refugees, and drawing revealing lessons from his life in politics, David Miliband shows that if we fail refugees then we betray our own history, values and interests. The message is simple: rescue refugees and we rescue ourselves.
The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri
Aged eight, Dina Nayeri fled Iran along with her mother and brother, and lived in the crumbling shell of an Italian hotel-turned-refugee camp. Eventually she was granted asylum in America. Now, Nayeri weaves together her own vivid story with those of other asylum seekers in recent years. In these pages, women gather to prepare the noodles that remind them of home, a closeted queer man tries to make his case truthfully as he seeks asylum and a translator attempts to help new arrivals present their stories to officials. Surprising and provocative, The Ungrateful Refugee recalibrates the conversation around the refugee experience. Here are the real human stories of what it is like to be forced to flee your home, and to journey across borders in the hope of starting afresh.
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The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives edited by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen called on 17 fellow refugee writers from across the globe to shed light on their experiences, and the result is The Displaced, a powerful dispatch from the individual lives behind current headlines, with proceeds to support the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Today the world faces an enormous refugee crisis: 68.5 million people fleeing persecution and conflict from Myanmar to South Sudan and Syria, a figure worse than flight of Jewish and other Europeans during World War II and beyond anything the world has seen in this generation. Yet in the United States, United Kingdom, and other countries with the means to welcome refugees, anti-immigration politics and fear seem poised to shut the door. Even for readers seeking to help, the sheer scale of the problem renders the experience of refugees hard to comprehend. Viet Nguyen brings together writers originally from Mexico, Bosnia, Iran, Afghanistan, Soviet Ukraine, Hungary, Chile, Ethiopia, and others to make their stories heard. These essays reveal moments of uncertainty, resilience in the face of trauma, and a reimagining of identity, forming a compelling look at what it means to be forced to leave home and find a place of refuge.
The Lightless Sky by Gulwali Passarlay
Gulwali Passarlay was sent away from Afghanistan at the age of twelve, after his father was killed in a gun battle with the US Army. He made a twelve- month odyssey across Europe, spending time in prisons, suffering hunger, making a terrifying journey across the Mediterranean in a tiny boat, and enduring a desolate month in the camp at Calais. Somehow he survived, and made it to Britain, where he was fostered, sent to school, and won a place at a top university. He was chosen to carry the Olympic torch in 2012. One boy's experience is the central story of our times. This powerful memoir celebrates the triumph of courage over adversity.
City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp by Ben Rawlance
To the charity workers, Dadaab refugee camp is a humanitarian crisis; to the Kenyan government, it is a 'nursery for terrorists'; to the western media, it is a dangerous no-go area; but to its half a million residents, it is their last resort. Situated hundreds of miles from any other settlement, deep within the inhospitable desert of northern Kenya where only thorn bushes grow, Dadaab is a city like no other. Its buildings are made from mud, sticks or plastic, its entire economy is grey, and its citizens survive on rations and luck. Over the course of four years, Ben Rawlence became a first-hand witness to a strange and desperate limbo-land, getting to know many of those who have come there seeking sanctuary. Among them are Guled, a former child soldier who lives for football; Nisho, who scrapes an existence by pushing a wheelbarrow and dreaming of riches; Tawane, the indomitable youth leader; and schoolgirl Kheyro, whose future hangs upon her education. In City of Thorns, Rawlence interweaves the stories of nine individuals to show what life is like in the camp and to sketch the wider political forces that keep the refugees trapped there.
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Selling Your Father's Bones: One Tribe's Flight Through the Great American West by Brian Schofield
In the summer of 1877, around seven hundred members of the Nez Perce Native American tribe set out on one of the most remarkable journeys in the history of the American West, a 1,700-mile exodus through the mountains, forests, badlands and prairies of modern-day Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. They had been forced from their homes by the great wave of settlement that crashed over the West as the American nation was born.
Led by their charismatic chiefs, the Nez Perce used their unerring knowledge of the landscapes they passed through to survive six battles and many more skirmishes with the pursuing United States Army, as they raced, with women, children and village elders in their care, towards the safety of the Canadian border. But all Chief Joseph, the young pastoral leader of the exodus, wanted was to return home - to his beloved Wallowa valley, which his dying father had ordered him never to abandon: 'Never sell the bones of your father and your mother.'
Brian Schofield retraces the steps of that epic exodus, to tell the full dramatic story of the Nez Perce's fight for survival - and to examine the forces that drove them to take flight. The white settlement of the West had been largely motivated by patriotic fervour and religious zeal, a faith that the American continent had been laid out by God to fuel the creation of a mighty empire. But as he travels through the lands that the Nez Perce knew so well, Schofield reveals that the great project of the Western Empire has gone badly awry, as the mythology of the settlers opened the door to ecological vandalism, unthinking corporations and negligent leadership, which have left scarred landscapes, battered communities and toxic environments.
Far From Home by Cath Senker
What if you had to leave your home and you could never go back? What do you think that would be like? For millions of Syrian and Iraqi citizens (and for people from many other nations around the world), these are the question they face. The current, desperate situation in their homelands and the mass migrations from the Middle East is both shocking to us, and sadly nothing new. Far From Home addresses the clear need for a balanced and informative book on this complex topic. It examines the root causes of mass migrations from both a historical and current perspective. Historical sources and first-hand accounts are used to explore racism, religion, life in refugee camps and the challenges migrant and refugees face on arrival in new lands, alongside the response of host countries. The book also looks at the difficult and dangerous journeys people make in an attempt to reach a safe haven and life in refugee camps, with the constant struggle to access shelter, warmth, food, medicine and education.
Designed to be accessible to both children and adults, this book is an open and balanced tool for opening discussions around these sensitive issues.
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Outcasts United by Warren St. John
The incredible true story of a football team in the United States made up of refugee children.
Clarkston, Georgia, was a typical Southern town until it was designated a refugee settlement centre in the 1990s, becoming home to scores of families in flight from the world's war zones - from Liberia and Sudan to Iraq and Afghanistan. Suddenly Clarkston's streets were filled with women wearing the hijab, the smells of cumin and curry, and kids of all colours playing football in any open space they could find. Among them was Luma Mufleh, a Jordanian woman who founded a youth football team to unify Clarkston's refugee children and keep them off the streets. These kids named themselves the Fugees. Outcasts United follows a pivotal season in the life of the Fugees and their charismatic coach. Warren St. John documents the lives of a diverse group of young people as they miraculously coalesce into a band of brothers, while also drawing a fascinating portrait of a fading American town struggling to accommodate its new arrivals. At the centre of the story is fiery Coach Luma, who relentlessly drives her players to success on the football field while holding together their lives - and the lives of their families - in the face of a series of daunting challenges. This fast-paced chronicle of a single season is a complex and inspiring tale of a small town becoming a global community - and an account of the ingenious and complicated ways we create a home in a changing world.
The Crossing by Samar Yazbek
Samar Yazbek was well known in her native Syria as a writer and a journalist but, in 2011, she fell foul of the Assad regime and was forced to flee. Since then, determined to bear witness to the suffering of her people, she bravely revisited her homeland by squeezing through a hole in the fence on the Turkish border. In The Crossing, she testifies to the appalling reality that is Syria today. From the first innocent demonstrations for democracy, through the beginnings of the Free Syrian Army, to the arrival of ISIS, she offers remarkable snapshots of soldiers, children, ordinary men and women simply trying to stay alive...Some of these stories are of hardship and brutality that is hard to bear, but she also gives testimony to touches of humanity along the way: how people live under the gaze of a sniper...how principled young men try to resist orders from their military superiors...how children cope in the bunkers... Yazbek's portraits of life in Syria are very real, her prose is luminous. The Crossing is undoubtedly both an important historical document and a work of literature.
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I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
Age recommendation 13+
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley, one girl fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, 9 October 2012, she almost paid the ultimate price when she was shot in the head at point-blank range. Malala Yousafzai's extraordinary journey has taken her from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations. She has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and is the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. I Am Malala will make you believe in the power of one person's voice to inspire change in the world.
We are Displaced by Malala Yousafzai
Nobel Peace Prize winner and bestselling author Malala Yousafzai introduces some of the faces behind the statistics and news stories we read or hear every day about the millions of people displaced worldwide.
Malala's experiences visiting refugee camps caused her to reconsider her own displacement - first as an Internally Displaced Person when she was a young child in Pakistan, and then as an international activist who could travel anywhere in the world, except to the home she loved. In We Are Displaced, which is part memoir, part communal storytelling, Malala not only explores her own story of adjusting to a new life while longing for home, but she also shares the personal stories of some of the incredible girls she has met on her various journeys - girls who have lost their community, relatives, and often the only world they've ever known.
In a time of immigration crises, war and border conflicts, We Are Displaced is an important reminder from one of the world's most prominent young activists that every single one of the 68.5 million currently displaced is a person - often a young person - with hopes and dreams, and that everyone deserves universal human rights and a safe home.
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