In the Sea There Are Crocodiles

A bestseller when first published in Italy, this extraordinary book is the story of a young Afghan boy s remarkable and moving journey from his small village in Ghazni province to northern Italy where he finally managed to claim political asylum. The journey began when Enaiatollah was ten years old. Forced to flee his village by a Pashtun gang, he was left by his mother on the Pakistan border, the beginning of a lonely five-year ordeal during which the boy managed to make his way through Iran, Turkey and Greece, working on building sites in order to pay people traffickers, and enduring the physical misery and fear of dangerous border crossings squeezed into the false bottoms of lorries or trekking across inhospitable mountains. A series of almost implausible strokes of luck enabled him to get to Turin, find help from an Italian family and meet the novelist Fabio Geda, who works with deprived children. When Enaiatollah asked Fabio to write his story down for him, little did he know that Fabio would capture the way in which the ten-year-old experienced his ordeal so faithfully and so engagingly that the book would be instantly be taken to reader s hearts. In Geda s hands, Enaiatoll

About the Author :
Born in Turin in 1972, Fabio Geda is an Italian novelist who works with children in difficulties. He writes for several Italian magazines and newspapers, and teaches creative writing at the Italian school of storytelling, Scuola Holden, in Turin. This is his first book to be translated into English.

Review :
The personal stories of refugees and their life-or-death battles are usually lost in between the lines of news reports. In direct and undecorated prose, Fabio Geda beautifully delivers the human experience of Enaiatollah, a ten-year-old Afghani boy, whose will for survival is more than remarkable. In the Sea There Are Crocodiles will make you laugh and cry, and it will also make you a better person. Everyone should read this book If Fabio Geda's first-person rendition of Enaiatollah Akbadi's story were entirely fictional, it would more than stand-up as a page-turner that makes you care about its hero from the outset and willingly accompany him on his often perilous journey from Afghanistan to Italy. That it is based on reality makes it more than just a compelling adventure story. For here is a frank, revealing and clear-eyed testament of the experiences faced by a young asylum-seeker in the contemporary world A moving and eye-opening account, chronicle of hardships no child should have to endure Geda's voice combines the plucky survivor's determination of his charge with moments of pathos - soaked poignancy and others of joyful laughter... It's sobering and heart lifting to see the stoical determination and achievement of someone who makes out world look like paradise. This little gem, beautifully and unobtrusively translated, will raise tears of sorrow and joy A beautifully written and moving book