The Lightless Sky : An Afghan Boy's Harrowing Escape from His Own Home and His Extraordinary Journey Across Half the World ebook TXT, MOBI, PDF
9780062443878 English 0062443879 A gripping, inspiring, and eye-opening memoir of fortitude and survival of a twelve-year-old boy s traumatic flight from Afghanistan to the West that puts a face to one of the most shocking and devastating humanitarian crises of our time. To risk my life had to mean something. Otherwise what was it all for? In 2006, after his father was killed, Gulwali Passarlay was caught between the Taliban who wanted to recruit him, and the Americans who wanted to use him. To protect her son, Gulwali s mother sent him away. The search for safety would lead the twelve-year-old across eight countries, from the mountains of eastern Afghanistan through Iran and Europe to Britain. Over the course of twelve harrowing months, Gulwali endured imprisonment, hunger, cruelty, brutality, loneliness, and terror and nearly drowned crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Eventually granted asylum in England, Gulwali was sent to a good school, learned English, won a place at a top university, and was chosen to help carry the Olympic Torch in the 2012 London Games.In The Lightless Sky, Gulwali recalls his remarkable experience and offers a firsthand look at one of the most pressing issues of our time: the modern refugee crisis the worst displacement of millions of men, women, and children in generations. Few, like Gulwali, make it to a country that offers the chance of freedom and opportunity. A celebration of courage and determination, The Lightless Sky is a poignant account of an exceptional human being who is today an ardent advocate of democracy and a reminder of our responsibilities to those caught in terrifying and often deadly circumstances beyond their control.", After Gulwali Passarlay s father and grandfather were killed by U.S. troops for allegedly cooperating with the Taliban, he fled Afghanistan with his brother in the middle of the night with only a hastily packed rucksack and little more than two hundred dollars in his pocket. He was twelve years old, and this is his story.Told in unflinching and unforgettable detail, The Lightless Sky is at once an utterly absorbing personal history and the defining story of the modern refugee experience, a stunning testament to the power of the human spirit; the triumph of faith, courage, and determination; and the undeniable universal right to life, liberty, and security of person.Trafficked by an international cartel of smugglers through Pakistan s treacherous Waziristan and Peshawar regions and the desolate outposts of Iran, Gulwali eventually reached Izmir, Turkey, then on to Bulgaria, where he disembarked for Greece on a dangerously overcrowded boat that spent two days being battered and nearly capsizing before Gulwali and the more than one hundred other refugees onboard finally touched ground soaked, starving, and exhausted. From Athens, Gulwali trekked through Italy, Belgium, Germany, and finally France, where he was stranded for a month in the Jungle, a notorious makeshift refugee camp outside the port city of Calais, while waiting to cross the Channel for England, his final destination.The first book to tell the modern refugee crisis from a firsthand perspective, The Lightless Sky is an unforgettable chronicle of Gulwali s yearlong odyssey from Afghanistan to England, during which he traveled more than twelve thousand miles, escaped internment in Turkey and Bulgaria, negotiated passage with shadowy agents in the smuggling trade, and struggled to settle mentally and emotionally in England long after his physical journey came to an end. By sharing his story, Gulwali brings to life the plight of the sixty million refugees and internally displaced people around the world who continue to risk their lives in pursuit of freedom, equality, and a better life, despite innumerable and unimaginable hardships and endless humiliations, because, as the poet Warsan Shire reminds us, no one leaves home unless home chases you. "
9780062443878 English 0062443879 A gripping, inspiring, and eye-opening memoir of fortitude and survival of a twelve-year-old boy s traumatic flight from Afghanistan to the West that puts a face to one of the most shocking and devastating humanitarian crises of our time. To risk my life had to mean something. Otherwise what was it all for? In 2006, after his father was killed, Gulwali Passarlay was caught between the Taliban who wanted to recruit him, and the Americans who wanted to use him. To protect her son, Gulwali s mother sent him away. The search for safety would lead the twelve-year-old across eight countries, from the mountains of eastern Afghanistan through Iran and Europe to Britain. Over the course of twelve harrowing months, Gulwali endured imprisonment, hunger, cruelty, brutality, loneliness, and terror and nearly drowned crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Eventually granted asylum in England, Gulwali was sent to a good school, learned English, won a place at a top university, and was chosen to help carry the Olympic Torch in the 2012 London Games.In The Lightless Sky, Gulwali recalls his remarkable experience and offers a firsthand look at one of the most pressing issues of our time: the modern refugee crisis the worst displacement of millions of men, women, and children in generations. Few, like Gulwali, make it to a country that offers the chance of freedom and opportunity. A celebration of courage and determination, The Lightless Sky is a poignant account of an exceptional human being who is today an ardent advocate of democracy and a reminder of our responsibilities to those caught in terrifying and often deadly circumstances beyond their control.", After Gulwali Passarlay s father and grandfather were killed by U.S. troops for allegedly cooperating with the Taliban, he fled Afghanistan with his brother in the middle of the night with only a hastily packed rucksack and little more than two hundred dollars in his pocket. He was twelve years old, and this is his story.Told in unflinching and unforgettable detail, The Lightless Sky is at once an utterly absorbing personal history and the defining story of the modern refugee experience, a stunning testament to the power of the human spirit; the triumph of faith, courage, and determination; and the undeniable universal right to life, liberty, and security of person.Trafficked by an international cartel of smugglers through Pakistan s treacherous Waziristan and Peshawar regions and the desolate outposts of Iran, Gulwali eventually reached Izmir, Turkey, then on to Bulgaria, where he disembarked for Greece on a dangerously overcrowded boat that spent two days being battered and nearly capsizing before Gulwali and the more than one hundred other refugees onboard finally touched ground soaked, starving, and exhausted. From Athens, Gulwali trekked through Italy, Belgium, Germany, and finally France, where he was stranded for a month in the Jungle, a notorious makeshift refugee camp outside the port city of Calais, while waiting to cross the Channel for England, his final destination.The first book to tell the modern refugee crisis from a firsthand perspective, The Lightless Sky is an unforgettable chronicle of Gulwali s yearlong odyssey from Afghanistan to England, during which he traveled more than twelve thousand miles, escaped internment in Turkey and Bulgaria, negotiated passage with shadowy agents in the smuggling trade, and struggled to settle mentally and emotionally in England long after his physical journey came to an end. By sharing his story, Gulwali brings to life the plight of the sixty million refugees and internally displaced people around the world who continue to risk their lives in pursuit of freedom, equality, and a better life, despite innumerable and unimaginable hardships and endless humiliations, because, as the poet Warsan Shire reminds us, no one leaves home unless home chases you. "