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The Lightless Sky

a Twelve-year-old Refugee's Harrowing Escape From Afghanistan and His Extraordinary Journey Across Half the World
cheerphil
Jan 29, 2017cheerphil rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I don't know if I've ever read non-fiction before that also fell into the categories of page-turning tear-jerker. The Lightless Sky, which I happened to pick up randomly off the new book shelf, is both. It's a gripping insight into the netherworld of human smuggling, as millions of people from war-torn regions try to escape to safety. How easily those of us with western passports buy discount airfare so we can travel to countries like Greece and Turkey (me included, many times), secure in the knowledge that our embassies will help us in the unlikely event that anything goes wrong. In a parallel universe, those same countries are the pathway for countless desperate refugees who pay human smugglers many thousands of dollars for a perilous and inhumane journey that affords them no real guarantees. And yet, I was so touched by the random acts of kindness by many people along the way, enabling this extraordinary young man to eventually reach Britain where he was reunited with his brother. It's a reminder that each of us can choose whether to help somebody in need, or whether to close our eyes and harden our hearts. The author spent a while in Calais' "Jungle", a vast shantytown that I had seen media reporting of, but didn't really know too much else about. Reading about it from the perspective of those trying to escape to the life we take for granted was eye-opening. This is a very topical subject right now, at a time when so many of us are stunned at the heartlessness of a government that is summarily closing its borders to people coming from countries torn apart by warfare that was financed, orchestrated and arguably even caused by that same government.