Here are some recommended books about the refugee experience, as well as anti racism. Thanks to PERN member from Appleby, Ken Boullier, for putting this great list together and for encouraging us to read and learn more about these important topics. Please purchase your new book from your local bookshop or second hand store or from our shop on Bookshop.org – or visit your local library.
You can download the list as a PDF here.
Got a great book you’d like to add to the list? Let us know!
A Twelve-Year-Old Refugee’s Harrowing Escape from Afghanistan and His Extraordinary Journey Across Half The World
The boy who fled Afghanistan and endured a terrifying journey in the hands of people smugglers is now a young man intent on changing the world. His story is a deeply harrowing and incredibly inspiring tale of our times.
‘To risk my life had to mean something. Otherwise what was it all for?’
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. Smuggled into Iran, Gulwali began 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, no longer an innocent child but still a young boy alone. In Britain he was fostered, sent to agood school, won a place at a top university, and was chosen to carry the Olympic torch in 2012.
Gulwali wants to tell his story – to bring to life the plight of the thousands of men, women and children who are making this perilous journey every day. One boy’s experience is the central story of our times. This memoir celebrates the triumph of courage and determination over adversity.
In the midst of war, he found love In the midst of darkness, he found courage.
In the midst of tragedy, he found hope.
Nuri is a beekeeper; his wife, Afra, an artist. They live a simple life, rich in family and friends, in the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo – until the unthinkable happens. When all they care for is destroyed by war, they are forced to escape.
As Nuri and Afra travel through a broken world, they must confront not only the pain of their own unspeakable loss, but dangers that would overwhelm the bravest of souls. Above all – and perhaps this is the hardest thing they face – they must journey to find each other again.
Moving, powerful, compassionate and beautifully written, The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a testament to the triumph of the human spirit. Told with deceptive simplicity, it is the kind of book that reminds us of the power of storytelling.
I’ve experienced the best and worst of humanity. I’ve been detained and beaten, and welcomed and respected. And yet, this story – my story – is one of hope, not fear.
From the jasmine-scented streets of Damascus to uprisings, protest and being forced to flee his home, Hassan Akkad has experienced unbearable losses. Yet, he still holds on to hope and chooses to see the kindness in humanity every day.
Since seeking asylum in the UK, Hassan’s unshakeable instinct to raise awareness, help and connect, has seen him share not only his experience as a refugee, but of the coronavirus pandemic. Hassan documented his work as a cleaner on a London hospital Covid-19 ward. His photographs and advocacy shone a spotlight on the often overlooked NHS cleaners and porters, instigated a U-turn on a government bill that had excluded their families from the bereavement compensation scheme and co-directed Convergence, a Netflix documentary
paying tribute to the unsung heroes of the pandemic.
Hassan has captured hearts the world over. He bridges national and political divides, his humanity, sense of service and ideals bring people together. Hope Not Fear is a campaigning message of triumphing over adversity, standing together and uniting in kindness and love.
In this book, Hassan shows us why this is the single most important message of our time.
Stories of Migration from the Humans Behind the Headlines
“Asylum Speakers is truly an anthology of humanity. It’s a reminder of how much we all have in common and that each of us has an equal right to be safe.” – Josie Naughton, founder of Choose Love
Based on the popular podcast, Asylum Speakers is a collection of 31 stories of migration, from those leaving everything they know behind them, to those working alongside them.
Here are the voices that often go unheard: the humans behind the statistics and the headlines. From Syria to Venezuela, Eritrea to Afghanistan, Asylum Speakers will transcend borders, nationalities, religions and languages, connecting you to the people with whom we share this world.
“These stories are raw, powerful, intimate, at times hard to read but always full of humanity. Reading this book gives me hope.” – Giles Duley, CEO of Legacy of War Foundation
An uplifting, life-enhancing autobiography, a poignant story of the power of resilience
Born in war-torn Afghanistan, Waheed Arian’s first memories are of bombs. His first-hand experience of the power of medicine inspired him to dedicate his life to healing others. But how does a boy with nothing hope to become a doctor?
Fleeing the conflict with his family, he spent much of his childhood in refugee camps in Pakistan, living sometimes ten to a room without basic sanitation or access to education. Waheed largely taught himself, from textbooks bought from street-sellers, and learned English from the BBC World Service.
Smuggled to the UK at fifteen with just a hundred dollars in his pocket, he found a job in a shop. He was advised to set his sights on becoming a taxi driver. But the boy from Kabul had bigger ambitions. Working through PTSD and anxiety, he studied all hours to achieve his vocation. He was accepted to read medicine at Cambridge University, Imperial College and Harvard, and went on to become a doctor in the NHS, currently in A&E.
But he wanted to do more. In 2015 he founded Arian Teleheal, a pioneering global charity that connects doctors in war zones and low-resource countries with their counterparts in the US, UK, Europe and Australia. Together, learning from each other, they save and change lives – the lives of millions of people just like Waheed.
Here, poets and novelists retell the stories of individuals who have direct experience of Britain’s policy of indefinite immigration detention.
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 accounts anonymously, as modern day counterparts to the pilgrims’ stories in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, this book offers rare, intimate glimpses into otherwise untold suffering.
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.
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.
Raised on benefits and having attended some of the lowest-performing schools in the country, barrister Hashi Mohamed knows something about social mobility.
In People Like Us, he shares what he has learned: from the stark statistics that reveal the depth of the problem to the failures of imagination, education and confidence that compound it.
What does it take to make it in modern Britain? Ask a politician, and they’ll tell you it’s hard work. Ask a millionaire, and they’ll tell you it’s talent. Ask a CEO and they’ll tell you it’s dedication. But what if none of those things is enough?
We live in a society where the single greatest indicator of what your job will be is the job of your parents. Where power and privilege are concentrated among the 7 per cent of the population who were privately educated. Where, if your name sounds Black or Asian, you’ll need to send out twice as many job applications as your white neighbour.
Wherever you are on the social spectrum, this is an essential investigation into our society’s most intractable problem. We have more power than we realise to change things for the better.
From the first time he was stopped and searched as a child, to the day he realised his mum was white, to his first encounters with racist teachers – race and class have shaped Akala’s life and outlook.
In this unique book he takes his own experiences and widens them out to look at the social, historical and political factors that have left us where we
are today.
Covering everything from the police, education and identity to politics, sexual objectification and the far right, Natives speaks directly to British denial and squeamishness when it comes to confronting issues of race and class that are at the heart of the legacy of Britain’s racialised empire.
‘Every voice raised against racism chips away at its power. We can’t afford to stay silent. This book is an attempt to speak’
The book that sparked a national conversation. Exploring everything from eradicated black history to the inextricable link between class and race, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race is the essential handbook for anyone who wants to understand race relations in Britain today.
Me and White Supremacy shows readers how to dismantle the privilege within themselves so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of colour, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.
When Layla Saad began an Instagram challenge called #MeAndWhiteSupremacy, she never predicted it would spread as widely as it did. She encouraged people to own up and share their racist behaviours, big and small. She was looking for truth, and she got it. Thousands of people participated, and over 90,000 people downloaded the book.
At the age of ten, Enaiatollah Akbari was left alone to fend for himself. This is the heartbreaking, unforgettable story of his journey from Afghanistan to Italy in an attempt to find a safe place to live.
“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.”
This debut middle-grade novel chronicles the harrowing journey taken by Sami and his family from privilege to poverty, across countries and continents, from a comfortable life in Damascus, via a smuggler’s den in Turkey, to a prison in Manchester.
A story of survival, of family, of bravery …
In a world where we are told to see refugees as the ‘other’, this story will remind readers that ‘they’ are also ‘us’.
A heart-wrenching true story about life in a Kenyan refugee camp that will restore your faith in real-life happy endings.
Omar and his brother Hassan, two Somali boys, have spent a long time in the Dadaab refugee camp. Separated from their mother, they are looked after by a friendly stranger. Life in the camp isn’t always easy. The hunger is constant…
but there’s football to look forward to, and now there’s a chance Omar will get to go to school…
With a heart-wrenching fairytale ending, this incredible true story is brought to life by Victoria’s stunning illustrations. This book perfectly depicts life in a refugee camp for 8-12 year olds.
OTHER BOOKS TO LOOK AT
