After at least 27 refugees died while attempting to cross the English Channel on an overladen plastic dinghy, and a rather lukewarm expression of empathy from the Home Secretary, it’s starting to feel like the privileged West are in need of some serious education when it comes to the topic of immigration.
Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini and Dan Williams / Image Credit: Bloomsbury Publishing
In these five emotional books, the heart-breaking truth behind the lives of refugees are revealed in such a way that makes it impossible to take for granted what it’s like to live in a country safe from war.
1. Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini
For those that absorb ideas easiest on a visual level, Khaled Hosseini’s illustrated story Sea Prayer is the perfect exploration of the horrors of a refugee life. Inspired by the death of Alan Kurdi; a 3-year-old Syrian boy who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea with his mother and brother in 2015; it’s a letter from a father to his son as they prepare for a dangerous crossing to escape the Syrian Civil War and features illustrations by Dan Williams.
Hosseini also visited refugee themes in his iconic debut novel The Kite Runner, set during the Soviet occupation of Kabul.
2. We Are Displaced by Malala Yousafzai
Written by the 24-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Pakistani activist, five years on from her autobiography I Am Malala, We Are Displaced is a collection of stories from refugees around the world, interspersed with her own anecdotes.
As one of the most famous refugees in the world, having fled Pakistan at the age of 15 following an attempt on her life by the Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan, her recollections and explorations of people fleeing war and terrorism is some of the most poignant we’ve ever read.
3. The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri
A fictional account of the lives of a group of Syrian refugees, we see a couple whose life in the glorious city of Aleppo is snatched away from them as the Syrian Civil War hits, blowing their house to pieces and killing their loved ones. They must not only navigate a dangerous journey to the UK, but a brittle relationship strained by grief and PTSD.
Christy Lefteri was inspired to write this heart-wrenching book after spending two months in Athens volunteering at a women and children’s refuge centre. While she was born in London in 1980, her parents are Greek Cypriots who escaped Cyprus in 1974 following the Turkish invasion.
4. The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Raúf
A children’s book written from the perspective of a 9-year-old, The Boy at the Back of the Class is about the arrival of a new boy named Ahmet. He’s different from the other kids, but the narrator soon learns that he and his family have escaped War, and is inspired, with the help of his friends, to help Ahmet come to terms with his new life.
The winner of the 2019 Blue Peter Book Award and Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, it’s a beautiful tale of kindness and empathy that all children must get the chance to read.
MORE: What I Learned As A Refugee By Annahita Parsan
5. Hope Not Fear by Hassan Akkad
This BAFTA Award winning filmmaker knows only too well the horrors of the Syrian regime which forced him on an 87-day journey to the UK after being beaten and jailed. His footage was used in the BBC documentary Exodus: Our Journey to Europe, and he later went viral for a video he posted while working as a cleaner at an NHS hospital, expressing his disgust over the fact that cleaners and porters would be exempt from the NHS bereavement scheme organised by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic. His video was instrumental in the government’s U-turn on the issue.
This year he published his memoir Hope Not Fear, in which he relays all his experiences as a refugee and immigrant NHS worker and his hopes that kindness will unite people against adversity.
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