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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | Fic Geda, F. 2011 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
When ten-year-old Enaiatollah Akbari's small village in Afghanistan falls prey to Taliban rule in early 2000, his mother shepherds the boy across the border into Pakistan but has to leave him there all alone to fend for himself. Thus begins Enaiat's remarkable and often punishing five-year ordeal, which takes him through Iran, Turkey, and Greece before he seeks political asylum in Italy at the age of fifteen.
Along the way, Enaiat endures the crippling physical and emotional agony of dangerous border crossings, trekking across bitterly cold mountain pathways for days on end or being stuffed into the false bottom of a truck. But not everyone is as resourceful, resilient, or lucky as Enaiat, and there are many heart-wrenching casualties along the way.
Based on Enaiat's close collaboration with Italian novelist Fabio Geda and expertly rendered in English by an award- winning translator, this novel reconstructs the young boy's memories, perfectly preserving the childlike perspective and rhythms of an intimate oral history.
Told with humor and humanity, In the Sea There Are Crocodiles brilliantly captures Enaiat's moving and engaging voice and lends urgency to an epic story of hope and survival.
Author Notes
FABIO GEDA is an Italian novelist who writes for several Italian magazines and newspapers. This is his first book to be translated into English. Howard Curtis is a London-based translator of Italian and French texts, for which he has won numerous awards.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Based on the true story of Enaiatollah Akbari, a young boy whose agonizing struggle begins after his native Afghanistan becomes a dangerous place to live, Geda's novel is his first book to be translated into English. Enaiat is 10 years old when his mother takes him from their village into Pakistan, leaving her other children behind. She shepherds her eldest son to presumed safety while imparting three tenets for adulthood: don't use drugs, don't use weapons, and don't cheat or steal. She leaves him during the night and when he realizes she's gone and he's alone, he finds a series of jobs and transient shelters while trying to figure out which country might provide him with the chance to survive. He crosses into Iran, only to be to repatriated to Afghanistan under harsh conditions. His treacherous existence is filled with touching moments of accomplishment, as when he's able to buy a watch. "I'd often thought about having a watch, just to give some meaning to the passage of time..." Geda includes a running dialogue between himself as author and Enaiat that gives perspective to the tale as the boy forges onward, crossing borders and leaving his childhood far behind. The book is simply written, and strangely distant emotionally, but gives a face to the refugees who face daunting odds to get to the West. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A nonfiction novel, recounted in part from contemporary oral history.Ten-year-old Enaiatollah (Enaiat) Akbari lives with his mother in Ghazni province, in Afghanistan, and neither one knows his life is about to change forever. One day the Taliban arrive at his school and tell the headmaster to shut it down, but he ignoresor perhaps defiesthem. Two days later, the Taliban show up again, put the headmaster within a circle of students and shoot him. Thus begins Enaiat's odyssey from his village, and he's not to settle down again for five long and precarious years. Soon after the incident at his school, his mother gives her son three pieces of advicedon't use drugs, don't use weapons, don't cheat or stealand then she takes off, leaving Enaiat to fend for himself. He starts a pattern of relying on traffickers to get him across sundry borders, first to Pakistan, then to Iran, Turkey, Greece and, finallyat the age of 15Italy, where he's able to get asylum and start school again. Along the way he has various jobs, mostly selling wares on the streets or working illegally (and dangerously) on construction sites. He also relies on the kindness of strangers, a Greek woman, for example, who clothes him and gives him food and money. And while from an objective perspective Enaiat's life is both unsafe and high-risk, he never loses his innate optimism or his buoyant pluckiness and ingenuity.One marvels that Enaiat has told his life adventure to Italian author Geda, and while the novelist has evidently shaped Enaiat's story for publication, at its core is an authentic, open and marvelous voice of youthful exuberance.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Based on a true story, Geda's novel faithfully retells the torturous life of Afghan Enaiatollah Enaiat Akbari as, beginning at age 10, he proceeds from one dire situation to another in hopes of finding a new life free from Taliban rule. His plight is briskly as well as briefly told, yet in it there's no shortage of heart-breaking trials to be faced as Enaiat journeys through Pakistan and Iran to Turkey and Greece before finding political asylum in Italy when he is 15. On one page he's doing back-breaking labor to repay debts, and on the next he's spending days inside the false bottom of a truck dangerously crossing a border. Throughout, firing AK-47s boom and blast. Enaiat's daring adventure is ideally suited for young adults, but older readers will find in it a deeper layer of investigation of the humanity of strangers and the power of family. If Enaiat's memory eventually seems muddled and fragmented, so that the book must be called fiction, the truth of his experience remains.--Bayer, Case. Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
The night before young Enaiat's mother abandons him in Pakistan, hoping that her sacrifice will take him away from the merciless Taliban, she tells him "if you hold a wish up high, any wish, just in front of your forehead, then life will always be worth living." Enaiat's five-year journey, based on the true story of refugee Enaiatollah Akbari, takes him from his remote village in Afghanistan to Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, and, finally, Italy. As an illegal immigrant being shuttled between countries, Enaiat sees the best and the worst of humanity but never lets the ugliness of life deter him from his dream of a better future. In his first book to be translated into English, Italian novelist Geda occasionally inserts himself into the narrative in the form of conversations with his subject. The interjections, coupled with the first-person perspective, capture Enaiat's story with deceptively simple language laden with meaning, making the Afghani's tale not just a fascinating account of one man's trials but also a compelling epic full of insight into human nature. VERDICT Geda has crafted a deeply compelling novel about the cruelty and kindness of strangers and the strength of one man's will to survive even when the world seems bent against his success. [See Prepub Alert, 2/7/11.]-Chelsey Philpot, School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.