Hinterland
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
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'An illuminating and timely story that highlights the plight of refugees … A book that haunts and shames in equal measure' - Guardian
'This short but heart-wrenching book ... brings home the terrible human consequences of war. Caroline Brothers' stark, unsentimental novel is one everyone should read' - Daily Mail
'Intensely evocative … The emotional as well as geographical borderlands are sensitively delineated in this visceral and moving debut' - Independent
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The inspiration for Flight, the stunning play coming to the Bridge Theatre, from the creatives behind Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
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Two young boys cross a river in the middle of the night. The river is also a border, and their lives depend on this journey. With nothing but the clothes on their backs, Aryan and his little brother Kabir travel by truck, boat, train, bus and on foot across a Europe they desperately hope will offer them a future they can no longer wait for in Afghanistan. Kabul-Tehran-Istanbul-Athens-Rome-Paris-London – this is the route they cling to, the mantra they repeat in their prayers, and the only option they can see before them.
Hinterland is the story of two ordinary brothers whose courageous gamble brings home the devastating human consequences of war.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This debut novel from Brothers (War and Photography: A Cultural History), a former foreign correspondent for Reuters, is a compassionate and vigorous tale of orphaned Afghan brothers, Aryan, 14, and Kabir, 8, fleeing their native land to escape Taliban atrocities. Along their furtive trek to England Aryan makes Kabir memorize their route: "KabulTehranIstanbulAthensRomeParisLondon!" they work picking oranges in Greece, starve en route to Rome, and are finally stranded in Calais along with legions of other bedraggled refugees, including their old friend Hamid, all of whom scheme with a smuggler to get across the English Channel. "England is everybody's dream," says one refugee. The brothers encounter kind strangers, such as an American couple in France who pay their train fare, as well as cretins who exploit and even molest the na ve juveniles. Despite the string of hardships and setbacks, the brothers remain ebullient, even marveling how "hey must be the luckiest boys in the world" at one point. The skillfully handled backstory details their intimate family life in Afghanistan, and Iran, while the cinematic scope given to their journey underscores its immense undertaking.
