6,000 Miles to Freedom
Two Boys and Their Flight from the Taliban
Published on 10. May 2022
Book
Hardback
128 pages
978-1-63779-021-2 (ISBN)
Description
Two boys. One war-torn country. A world away, freedom.
Twelve-year-old Adel and his cousin Shafi try to lead a normal childhood in war-torn Afghanistan. But when Adel's father dies, everything changes. His uncle, a religious fundamentalist, sends Adel to study at a madrasa run by militants, where he is trained as an insurgent and chosen to carry out a suicide bombing. When his moment of martyrdom arrives, Adel's detonator fails, and he is forced to flee the country or risk being killed by the Afghan police or the Taliban themselves.
Together, Adel and Shafi set out to seek refuge in England, where Shafi's brother now lives and where a new life awaits. With that hope, the two boys begin the perilous journey of 6,000 miles to freedom, crossing mountains on foot and squeezing into crowded trucks with other refugees. The two become separated only to find each other again in the Calais Jungle encampment, their last, hellish stop.
Based on numerous testimonies from refugee youth, this poignant, timely, and well-documented story brings to life the traumatic experiences faced by Afghani children fleeing war and poverty, as well as the isolation they often feel as refugees in the West.
Twelve-year-old Adel and his cousin Shafi try to lead a normal childhood in war-torn Afghanistan. But when Adel's father dies, everything changes. His uncle, a religious fundamentalist, sends Adel to study at a madrasa run by militants, where he is trained as an insurgent and chosen to carry out a suicide bombing. When his moment of martyrdom arrives, Adel's detonator fails, and he is forced to flee the country or risk being killed by the Afghan police or the Taliban themselves.
Together, Adel and Shafi set out to seek refuge in England, where Shafi's brother now lives and where a new life awaits. With that hope, the two boys begin the perilous journey of 6,000 miles to freedom, crossing mountains on foot and squeezing into crowded trucks with other refugees. The two become separated only to find each other again in the Calais Jungle encampment, their last, hellish stop.
Based on numerous testimonies from refugee youth, this poignant, timely, and well-documented story brings to life the traumatic experiences faced by Afghani children fleeing war and poverty, as well as the isolation they often feel as refugees in the West.
Reviews / Votes
"Testimonies from refugee youth inform Marchetti's story, its timely urgency inspiring a reading in one sitting."-starred review Shelf Awareness "A timely reminder of the realities of the refugee crisis."
-Andy Oliver Broken Frontier
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Pennsylvania State University Press
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Dimensions
Height: 297 mm
Width: 195 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
690 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-63779-021-2 (9781637790212)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Stephane Marchetti is an author, director, and producer of documentaries. His film Rafah, chroniques d'une ville dans la bande de Gaza won the Albert Londres Prize in 2008. 6,000 Miles to Freedom is based on testimony collected in his 2017 documentary, Les enfants de la jungle.
Cyrille Pomes published his first comic book, A la lettre pres, in 2005. Since then, he has collaborated with historian Jean-Pierre Filiu on Le printemps de Arabes and Le dame de Damas and with Isabelle Merlet on the prize-winning Le fils de l'Ursari, based on the novel by Xavier-Laurent Petit.
Cyrille Pomes published his first comic book, A la lettre pres, in 2005. Since then, he has collaborated with historian Jean-Pierre Filiu on Le printemps de Arabes and Le dame de Damas and with Isabelle Merlet on the prize-winning Le fils de l'Ursari, based on the novel by Xavier-Laurent Petit.