No Friends But The Mountains by Behrouz Boochani

Description

Behrooz Bochani is a Kurdish -Iranian refugee who reached Australia by boat. This book was typed out on a mobile phone in a series of messages over time from Manus detention centre. Later it is translated from Persian into English by Omid Tofighian who is an Iranian-Australian.

This is a memoir, a perspective and a horrifying experience. In this book, you become his eyes and travel through his unfinished thoughts. You learn about ordinary humans’ behaviour in their most unfortunate states.

I admire the courage and honesty of the author but I don’t like some of his logic and assumptions. It reminds me of the illegal and demanding Afghan refugees in Iran. I think with an illegal action comes unexpected consequences. His reasons to go through such a horrifying journey and his understanding of the roots of his struggles are not mature and convincing in my opinion. But this does not justify the cruelty of the ones in power some of their actions remind me of German camps during WWII.

If you want to know more about this book, read Woman & Thoughts blog post, Iranian Writers Political Refugees.

You can also listen to it by getting an Audible free membership trial.