One of my friends asked me for book recommendations about the global state of refugees, and after I’d sent her about 50 texts, I realized it would be better to sum it all up in a post!
I organized each book by country and will update with more countries and titles as I read! (and my most recommended books are starred**)
Iraq
Note: In 2014, ISIS targeted Yazidis (an ethno-religious minority group mainly located in northern Iraq) for genocide—decimating their population and infrastructure, rounding up and killing their men, and enslaving their women to ISIS fighters. This violence and hatred split families in the most devastating way possible and inflicted unimaginable trauma on thousands of people. While living in Iraq, I worked closely with a Yazidi family who had escaped ISIS’ best attempts to extinguish them and their way of life. At least once a week, I played games with their children, taught a few words of English, and shared meals with them in some of the brightest moments of my life. And when reading these narratives, I can’t escape the thought that the young girls could have been part of the thousands of Yazidi women who are still missing today. The young boys could have been in a mass grave or forced to join ISIS. Because of this, I care so deeply about the Yazidi people and their right to be free from persecution. It’s hard to read books like these, but I believe in doing so anyway, because these women’s experiences are real and deserving of our attention.
**The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity and My Fight Against the Islamic State – Nadia Murad
I first read The Last Girl before I moved to Iraqi Kurdistan—and at the time I had no idea how much the Yazidi community would come to mean to me. Nadia Murad lived in Kocho, Iraq with her family when ISIS invaded in the middle of the night. Abandoned by the Kurdish soldiers meant to protect them, this vulnerable Yazidi community was razed to the ground. Nadia was one of about 7,000 girls and women sold into sex slavery and trafficked by ISIS. A few months after capture, Nadia bravely escaped and was smuggled out of ISIS-controlled areas by a neighbor family and was reunited with what was left of her family.
Today, Nadia runs Nadia’s Initiative, a nonprofit advocating for the healing of survivors of mass atrocities, like the genocide she lived through. Nadia’s memoir outlines her life, capture, and escape from ISIS and the redemptive work she engages in today to heal her community.
The Girl Who Escaped ISIS – Farida KhalaF
Like Nadia Murad, Farida Khalaf was brutally wrenched from her family and life when ISIS invaded her home of Kocho, Iraq. She was bought and sold by ISIS fighters and subjected to sexual violence and trauma when she should have been finishing her last year of high school. Farida finally escaped after months in captivity and is now reclaiming her voice by sharing her story far and wide.
The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq – Dunya Mikhail
Written by acclaimed Iraqi poet and journalist Dunya Mikhail, The Beekeeper tells the true story of Abdullah Sharem, an Iraqi beekeeper, and the Yazidi women he helped escape from ISIS. It’s a beautiful narrative about how ordinary people stand up to injustice and evil, even at great personal cost.
Syria
Dear World: A Syrian Girl’s Story of War and Plea for Peace – Bana Alabed
Bana Alabed was three years old when the Syrian Civil War began. By the time she was seven, she was living in one of the most dangerous war zones in the world: Aleppo, Syria. She grew up amid the falling bombs and watched other children and people she loved die in the wreckage. And then her name rocketed to international fame when she & her mother opened a Twitter account to share what they were going through with the world.
This memoir, written in Bana’s own words, with a few additional letters from her mother, is an incredible and haunting look into war-time Syria.
The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches from Syria – Janine Di Giovanni
Janine di Giovanni was a journalist living in Syria & reporting on the Syrian civilians protesting cruelty and lack of opportunity at the hands of the Syrian government. Because of the violent response of the establishment towards these protests, Syria quickly descended into civil war.
A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: One Refugee’s Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival – Melissa Fleming
This is a mix between a novel and an autobiography based on the author’s interviews with a Syrian woman named Doaa Al Zamal. Al Zamal was one of many who crossed the Mediterranean Sea on a boat trying to reach Europe. It is an intense read but an important look into what millions of people experienced while trying to escape violence and conflict.
Afghanistan
A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled hosseini
This is my favorite of Khaled Hosseini’s books—even more than his most well-known novel, The Kite Runner! 😱 This is the story of two Afghan women who have experienced the world very differently, but ultimately, under the Taliban’s regime, their lives converge and they must bond together to endure. The female-dominated plot resonated with me a lot and had a great impact on me even after I’d finished! This book is a masterpiece!
Somalia
**Call Me American – Abdi Nor Iftin
Call Me American is INCREDIBLE and RIVETING. I still think about it literally all the time. The memoir starts with the childhood of the author in Mogadishu, Somalia as he survives the rise of Al-Shabaab (an extremist group responsible for so much fear and violence in Somalia), then his life in Kenya as a refugee, and finally his resettlement in Maine. I was literally speechless when it was over. Abdi Nor Iftin writes with such astonishing hope and courage. Highly recommend!!!
Sudan
What is the What – Dave Eggers
This is another “true story novel” based on the author’s interviews with Valentino Achak Deng. It’s written in first person from the perspective of Deng, a child refugee who became one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. This group of 20,000 boys were orphaned or displaced and most took dangerous journeys on foot to camps hundreds of miles away.
Not gonna lie, this was hard to get through because just when you think it can’t get any worse for him, it does. However, it’s a really amazing book & Deng is unbelievably resilient and courageous!
Sierra Leone
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier – Ishmael Beah
This is the memoir of a former boy soldier in Sierra Leone who lived through civil war and was then brainwashed into an army of boy soldiers and forced to commit acts of brutality. He was later rescued by UNICEF and rehabilitated in a beautiful story of change and redemption!
Misc.
**After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America – Jessica Goudeau
After the Last Border is absolute perfection. It details the true stories of 2 refugee women, one a Christian from Burma who resettles in Texas in 2008 and one a Muslim from Syria who resettles in 2016. The political landscape and general view of refugees in the United States between 2008-2016 are, of course, drastically different and public sentiment affects their experiences greatly. After the Last Border tells both women’s stories from before conflict in their countries began until well after their resettlement—the writing connects you to them, their hopes, their grief so poignantly. Woven throughout the book are chapters on the political and sociological history of the refugee resettlement program starting after WWII until the Muslim Ban in 2017, which provides important context for their stories.
I can already tell you that this is the best book I’ve read in a very long time!
City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp – Ben Rawlence
City of Thorns follows nine different refugees over years as they live in the world’s largest refugee camp on the Kenya-Somalia border. It mostly reads like research or investigative journalism, sometimes like research, and does a good job of explaining the diverse reasons why there are so many refugees trapped there—sometimes for their entire lives.
My only critique is that Rawlence’s writing sometimes came across as rather detached (to me). But the book is still very informative and I would recommend it!!
We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World – Malala Yousafzai
This book is a quick primer on a lot of different conflicts across the world: It follows refugees / displaced women and their stories as they flee and adjust to new lives: One is a Yazidi girl from Iraqi Kurdistan (!) and the others are from Yemen, Syria, Colombia, Guatemala, the Congo, Myanmar, Uganda, and Pakistan.
Seeking Refuge: On the Shores of the Global Refugee Crisis – Stephan Bauman, Matthew Sorens, & Issam Smeir
The authors are three employees of World Relief and the book is essentially a “guide” to refugee policy and the global crisis. It is a practical, well-researched book debunking common misconceptions about refugees and challenging Christians to care about the crisis.
Exit West – Mohsin Hamid
I like to describe Exit West as part-novel, part-poetry, and part-science fiction. It takes place in an unnamed Middle Eastern country experiencing violence and war and tells the story of two lovers searching for peace. Instead of escaping their war-torn city on foot or via bus or boat, Saeed & Nadia come across magic doors that can transport them to a different country. I just love Exit West. The magic door metaphor is so beautiful and Hamid’s writing reads like poetry. I highly recommend!
