Madrid, August 2016/Photo © Kristin Fritz
The global community is currently in the midst of a refugee crisis unlike anything seen since WWII. The Syrian Civil War has displaced millions, forcing nearly five million civilians to flee the war-torn country and leaving millions more adrift within its border. The United States has generally been at the forefront of refugee resettlement. However, as with so many issues since the inauguration of Donald Trump, our nation’s refugee program has been thrown into disarray. The president’s executive order halting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries for ninety days while also halting refugee resettlement for 120 days and refugees from Syria indefinitely is largely a solution seeking a problem. Since the Refugee Act of 1980 created the current system of Refugee vetting, no refugee has been implicated in a single fatal terrorist attack.
The refugee experience is a well-documented and often heartbreaking one. Given the ongoing crisis and the prevalence of refugees as part of an ongoing national conversation – and the need for more compassion and empathy than ever – we’ve pulled together twelve books touching on the refugee experience to offer you more insight and understanding.
Say You're One of Them
Uwem Akpan
This collection of short stories from Nigerian author Uwem Akpan highlights the very human toll of the various conflicts that have affected African refugees. The stories give voice to perils ranging from the selling of children in Gabon to the Muslim-Christian conflict in Ethiopia and the Rwandan Genocide.A Long Way Gone
Ishmael Beah
In this gripping and powerful memoir, Ishmael Beah recounts his experiences first fleeing as a refugee and eventually being forcefully enlisted as a child soldier in Sierra Leone at the age of thirteen. An estimated 300,000 children have been forced to take up arms and commit unspeakable violence in conflicts around the world. Beah’s firsthand account of his experience is a mesmerizing and heartbreaking story of lost humanity regained.Girl at War
A Novel
Sara Novic
Sara Novic’s powerful debut novel illustrates the lasting emotional toll of war on those forced to suffer through it. Moving between scenes of young Ana Juric in Zagreb in 1991 at the start of the Yugoslav War and an older Ana in New York in 2001, still haunted by the experiences that defined so much of her childhood, Girl at War is a shattering look at the way war changes the life of the individual.The Zookeeper's Wife
Diane Ackerman
Drawing on the unpublished diary of Antonina Zabinski, Diane Ackerman recounts the powerful story of Antonina and her husband, Jan, director of the Warsaw Zoo. Following the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the couple saved the lives of approximately 300 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto by sheltering and hiding them within the zoo. The book has been adapted into a feature film starring Jessica Chastain and is due in theaters on March 31.We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families
Philip Gourevitch
Following the Rwandan Genocide, journalist Philip Gourevitch traveled to Rwanda and began conducting interviews with survivors with the hope of making sense of the horror that took place. This book is a collection of those stories, a sober examination of tragic and brutal oppression as seen through the eyes of those who survived.The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (with bonus content)
A Novel
Michael Chabon
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, the Pulitzer Prize winner from Michael Chabon, centers on two cousins: Joe Kavalier, a Czech refugee and artist fleeing Prague, and Sammy Clay, a Brooklyn-born writer. The at-times-rollicking-yet-profound novel follows the meteoric rise Kavalier and Clay in the world of the Golden Age comic book boom. It is at turns surprising, heartfelt, and thrilling.Sweetness in the Belly
Camilla Gibb
Sweetness in the Belly tells the story of Lilly, orphaned at the age of eight in Morocco after the murder of her British parents. Taken in and raised in a Sufi shrine, Lilly eventually makes her way to Ethiopia before being forced to flee to London as a refugee. It is a poignant examination of an outside search for home.What Is the What
Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers’s 2006 novel charts the true story of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee who at the age of seven fled Sudan to escape the second Sudanese Civil War. Deng, along with thousands of other children, trekked hundreds of miles on foot finding refuge in Ethiopia and eventually the United States as one of the “Lost Boys of Sudan.”Goodbye Sarajevo
Atka Reid, Hana Schofield
This powerful memoir recounts the experiences of sisters Atka and Hana. Separated at the beginning of the Bosnian War, twelve-year-old Hana is placed on an evacuation bus and finds refuge in Croatia while her older sister Atka stays behind in Sarajevo to look after their five younger siblings. Goodbye Sarajevo is their gripping story of survival and redemption.All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr
This Pulitzer Prize winner from author Anthony Doerr tells the story of the interlocking fates of a blind French girl named Marie-Laure and orphaned German boy named Werner in the midst of World War II. Marie-Laure and her family seek refuge along the northern coast of France following the German occupation of Paris; Werner is forced into a brutal academy for the Nazi elite. Doerr deftly interweaves the lives of his two protagonists in a poignant examination of the human condition.City of Thorns
Ben Rawlence
British writer Ben Rawlence weaves the stories of several inhabitants of the infamous Kenyan refugee settlement of Dadaab – the largest refugee camp in the world. These stories sketch the trials of life within the camp against the broader sociopolitical backdrop that leaves many of inhabitants in virtual limbo.Exit West
A Novel
Mohsin Hamid
One of the most anticipated books of 2017, Mohsin Hamed’s novel of the strife created by the Syrian Civil War is told through the lens of the love affair of young Nadia and Saeed. The pair find one another as their country teeters toward violent conflict and explosive unrest climbs to a terrifying fever pitch, forcing the couple to flee for survival. Timely and harrowing, Exit West arrives at bookseller on March 7.
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