"Facts are important, the story is important. It's what happens to you that changes your life, not where or who with."

This was a very moving story that follows Enaiatollah Akbari, an Afghani boy who at around ten years old (dates of birth are no registered in his village so he is unsure of his exact age) is whisked away from his home and siblings by his mother and taken to Quetta, Pakistan. After a few days staying in a sort of human warehouse he wakes up to find himself alone. Harassed by the police with threats of repatriation to his homeland Enaiatollah embarks on a perilous journey to Europe and asylum. Along the way Enaiatollah is shown touches of kindness but these are rare and he is generally exploited by those around him.

He tells us about sleeping on the streets, crossing freezing mountains, working on building sites and in a dangerous stone factory, sailing across the sea on a tiny dingy, losing friends, before reaching Italy where he finds stability with a foster family.

The book is basically written in interview style, where the author of the is recording Enaiatollah's story. He occasionally interjects with a question or comment, but for the most part, it is Enaiatollah just talking. Although perhaps not to everyone's taste this is an interesting way to convey the story, simultaneously very personal yet distant.

It was heart-breaking to read about all of the things that Enaiatollah and many other children went through. I cannot fathom how dire a situation would be for a mother to sneak her child to another country and then just abandon him there. He harbours no ill feelings toward his mother, just said that was probably for the best.

The book is very short and a quick read. However, this brevity is also a downside to this book as at times the details are a bit sketchy and in need of fleshing out. For example, whilst I realise that Enaiatollah was only 10 when he left Afghanistan I would still have liked to hear some background about the way that the Hazares are treated there, as such he comes across more as an economic migrant rather than one escaping persecution. Whilst the author does a great job of portraying one boy’s escape and survival I'm not convinced that it really adds much to the debate which is exercising most of the world in one way or other around this very contentious topic . ( )

CW: child abandonment ( )

Proprietario: Cristina Bolelli
Prestito: Sofia Faiella

When Enaiat is around ten his mother takes him from his village in Afganistan and they travel Pakistan. And then, after a few days, she leaves him there, and goes back home to his younger brother and sister. At first Enaiat isn’t sure what to do. He starts to work for the the man in whose “hotel” he has been abandoned, in exchange for food and board. Later he moves on to selling goods on the street. For this he earns money.

Eventually he leaves the city, looking for work, and then the country, and eventually he attempts to travel to Europe, and Italy.

The author’s note on this book tells me that although he is describing it as fiction, it really is Enaiat’s story, or his story as he recalled it and told to Geda.

And to be honest, the reason I picked this book up was the title and the cover. It is wonderfully eye-catching. I wasn’t so sure about the story itself, I’m not a fan of all these hard-life and misery books that are about. And before I started to read this I worried that it would be far too “woe is me”. In fact, it is pretty much the opposite of that, and that is the problem with is. Enaiat is only interested in telling the things that happened. Not the details of the who and the why and there where, simply the facts. But I found that left it a very spare and sparse book. I could have done with more character from Enaiat, although I sortof understand why they didn’t go down that route. ( )

In early 2002, Enaiatollah Akbari’s village fell prey to the Taliban. His mother, fearing for his life, led him across the border. So began Enaiat’s remarkable and often publishing five-year ordeal—trekking across bitterly cold mountains, riding the suffocating false bottom of a truck, steering an inflatable raft in violent waters—through Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, and Greece, before he eventually sought political asylum in Italy, all before he turned fifteen years old.