In the Sea There Are Crocodiles

One night before putting him to bed, Enaiatollahs mother tells him three things: dont use drugs, dont use weapons, dont steal. The next day he wakes up to find she isnt there. They have fled their village in Ghazni to seek safety outside Afghanistan but his mother has decided to return home to her younger children. Ten-year-old Enaiatollah is left alone in Pakistan to fend for himself.

In a book that takes a true story and shapes it into a beautiful piece of fiction, Italian novelist Fabio Geda describes Enaiatollahs remarkable five-year journey from Afghanistan to Italy where he finally managed to claim political asylum aged fifteen. His ordeal took him through Iran, Turkey and Greece, working on building sites in order to pay people-traffickers, and enduring the physical misery of dangerous border crossings squeezed into the false bottoms of lorries or trekking across inhospitable mountains. A series of almost implausible strokes of fortune enabled him to get to Turin, find help from an Italian family and meet Fabio Geda, with whom he became friends.

The result of their friendship is this unique book in which Enaiatollahs engaging, moving voice is brilliantly captured by Gedas subtle and simple storytelling. In Gedas hands, Enaiatollahs journey becomes a universal story of stoicism in the face of fear, and the search for a place where life is liveable.