Books on refugees that give a new perspective

Being a refugee is living a life abnegating all rights and claims one normally requires to live comfortably and staring into a bleak future that’s dependent on cold and ruthless policy decisions. In reality, none of us actually know what refugees go through. Here are some books that help one understand the refugee crisis through the lives of refugees, to show what they need refuge from and the harrowing journeys they take to escape. Hopefully these books will show the value of the lives behind those statistics.

'A Hope More Powerful than the Sea' follows Doaa's story, a young refugee from Syria. In 2015, Doaa was one of the five hundred people who crammed in a fishing boat and set sail for Europe in search of a new home away from war. Unfortunately, their boat sank and only 11 of them survived, including Doaa, who were rescued four days later. Melissa Fleming, Chief Spokesperson - UN High Commissioner for Refugees, tells Doaa's extraordinary story of surviving death and rescuing a toddler when she was drowning herself. The book will make readers think about the plight of refugees and how we can help them.

Photo: Fleet

Michael Chabon won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001 for his novel 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay'. The story follows two cousins: Joe Kavalier, who is a Czech refugee and artist from Prague, and Sammy Clay, who is a Brooklyn-born writer. The book follows the rise of Kavalier and Clay during the comic book boom.

Photo: Random House Trade Paperbacks

'Sea Prayer' was internationally bestselling author Khaled Hosseini's response to the refugee crisis that was making the news. It's a short novel written as a letter from a father to his son as he explains their journey, worrying about the dangers ahead. It's evident that they're escaping a war torn Syria.

Photo: khaledhosseini.com

Set in Sierra Leone, this book shows us how children are used in war. We read the story of how the narrator at 25, looks back at his childhood where he was drafted as a soldier after his village was taken over by rebels. The tales of a stolen childhood of horror is heart-wrenching and eye opening.

Photo: Sarah Crichton Books

Female education activist and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai has often championed the rights of those who barely have a voice. In this book she tells the stories of refugees she has met in all her humanitarian works in an attempt to get people to understand their circumstances.

Photo: W&N

This book tells the true story of Arn Chorn-Pond. As a child, he lived through the Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979 and the labor camps of the Khmer Rouge. He was separated from his family and made to work in a labour camp until one day he was asked to play music for the soldiers. His tale tells of his suffering in Cambodia and the way music can help.

Photo: patriciamccormick.com

This memoir tells the story of a girl who escaped from the Rwandan massacre with her sister, but without her family. They spent about six years going through seven African countries in trying to find safe place. They were often hungry, imprisoned and abused, in and out of refugee camps. You see both surprising kindness and cruelty in her tale.

Photo: Penguin Random House

This novel is set around a love story. Saeed and Nadia live in a place where there is an ongoing civil war and they want to escape, to find a place where they can live in peace. It's set in an unnamed place, making it reminiscent of all the places facing similar issues of unrest.

Photo: Wikipedia

This book starts telling the tale of 9 refugees and their families from the Dadaab Camp in Kenya, which used to be the biggest refugee camp in the world until the Rohingya refugee crisis. The book then explains the difficulties they all face and discusses ways the world can tackle the crisis of refugees.

Photo: Picador

This book also highlights the horrors children face as refugees. Starting in Afghanistan, we follow a young boy and his brother who try to run away from the war there. They journey through Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Calais seeking asylum is heart wrenching . It is a true story of a boy who lost everything.

Photo: HarperCollins