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A Country of Refuge
A Country of Refuge is a poignant, thought-provoking and timely anthology of writing on asylum seekers from some of Britain and Ireland’s most influential voices.
Compiled and edited by human rights activist and writer Lucy Popescu, this powerful collection of short fiction, memoir, poetry and essays explores what it really means to be a to flee from conflict, poverty and terror; to have to leave your home and family behind; and to undertake a perilous journey, only to arrive on less than welcoming shores.
These writings are a testament to the strength of the human spirit. The contributors articulate simple truths about migration that will challenge the way we think about and act towards the dispossessed and those forced to seek a safe place to call home.
Compiled and edited by human rights activist and writer Lucy Popescu, this powerful collection of short fiction, memoir, poetry and essays explores what it really means to be a to flee from conflict, poverty and terror; to have to leave your home and family behind; and to undertake a perilous journey, only to arrive on less than welcoming shores.
These writings are a testament to the strength of the human spirit. The contributors articulate simple truths about migration that will challenge the way we think about and act towards the dispossessed and those forced to seek a safe place to call home.
- GenresNonfictionPoetry
230 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 2, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 17, 2016
A brilliant anthology of writings on this important theme. Unbound (yet again) have done a fantastic job of making this a beautiful book to own, and I will return to many of these essays, short stories, memoirs and poems for inspiration in the future.
September 29, 2020
This is a really interesting collection of writing about refugees and asylum seekers. As ever with anthologies, some of the pieces were stronger than others.
One made me feel quite uncomfortable as it seemed to be a short story about white guilt, from the first person perspective talking about the experience of a white man encountering a man selling selfie sticks in Paris. The whole story was so othering and not in a self-aware kind of way that it just didn't sit right with me in a collection whose intention seemed to be to reframe the narrative about refugees.
In contrast, Joan Smith's essay comparing Anne Frank and Aylan Kurdi was excellent - providing stark evidence that we have learned nothing in the last 80 years. Western European countries were no more welcoming then than they are now - they shut the borders to Jews in need of safety, just as the UK is attempting to do now to the refugees arriving across the Channel. We teach our children about WWII and the Holocaust but gloss over the many who could have been saved if neighbouring countries had been less defensive. I suspect in 80 years time we will likewise be patting ourselves on the back for our 'tolerant' nature and conveniently forgetting that we only take in 1% of the world's refugees.
It's not the collection I might have wanted in terms of hearing refugee experiences in their own words, but there were a few writers with those experiences and some whose family members were refugees. If you go in being conscious that it is about refugees but not exclusively by refugees, there is much to appreciate and learn from.
One made me feel quite uncomfortable as it seemed to be a short story about white guilt, from the first person perspective talking about the experience of a white man encountering a man selling selfie sticks in Paris. The whole story was so othering and not in a self-aware kind of way that it just didn't sit right with me in a collection whose intention seemed to be to reframe the narrative about refugees.
In contrast, Joan Smith's essay comparing Anne Frank and Aylan Kurdi was excellent - providing stark evidence that we have learned nothing in the last 80 years. Western European countries were no more welcoming then than they are now - they shut the borders to Jews in need of safety, just as the UK is attempting to do now to the refugees arriving across the Channel. We teach our children about WWII and the Holocaust but gloss over the many who could have been saved if neighbouring countries had been less defensive. I suspect in 80 years time we will likewise be patting ourselves on the back for our 'tolerant' nature and conveniently forgetting that we only take in 1% of the world's refugees.
It's not the collection I might have wanted in terms of hearing refugee experiences in their own words, but there were a few writers with those experiences and some whose family members were refugees. If you go in being conscious that it is about refugees but not exclusively by refugees, there is much to appreciate and learn from.
Read
January 4, 2017In the past few years, the issue of refugees has been brought to the attention of the Western world in a way unprecedented since the end of the Second World War. Yet despite Britain priding itself on its long history as a country of refuge, and despite moments when individual images have roused us to compassion, most of what we see and hear about migrants and refugees has been overwhelmingly negative.
This anthology seeks to redress the balance and open readers to a deeper understanding of what drives ordinary people to flee their homes to make a life in a new country. It has been put together by Lucy Popescu, who for the last five years has worked as a volunteer mentor in the Write to Life programme of Freedom from Torture, hearing at first hand the terrible stories of refugee victims of torture, but also discovering their enduring warmth and resilience.
The anthology comprises a mixture of short stories, essays and poems. Given the prominence of refugees in the news, it seems extraordinary to me that publisher after publisher turned it down. So hurrah for Unbound, with their crowdfunding model of publication.
Though the authors are not, for the most part, refugees, many of the stories are drawn from the experiences of family. Sebastian Barry’s ‘Fragment of a Journal, Author Unknown’ takes us back to the ordeal of the Irish famine. Alex Wheatle recalls his father’s journey from Jamaica and Nick Barlay, his parents fleeing Hungary in 1956 as the Soviet tanks rolled in. Katharine Quarmby reflects on her family’s complex mix of migrants and refugees.
In ‘To Avoid Worse’, Joan Smith notes that the romanticisation of the story of Anne Frank obscures that fact that, before they went into hiding, her father tried desperately to get his family out of the country, but was refused visas by countries that might have given them refuge – and draws parallels with the family of Aylan Kurdi.
Hassan Abdulrazzak, who came to Britain with his family as a child refugee from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, reflects on how easy their path now seems in comparison with those trying to escape the war in Syria.
Some of the short stories seem designed to make us squirm. The narrator in Stephen Kelman’s ‘Selfie’ wants the man selling selfie sticks on the streets of Rome to understand he is different from all the other people ignoring him, even though he’ll do nothing to help him. In AL Kennedy’s ‘Inappropriate Staring’ two people eat their lunch outside the high fence of a detention centre while discussing the detainees like animals in the zoo. In Marina Lewyska’s ‘Hard Luck Story’, a security guard turns a deaf ear to the pleas of a woman he must put on a plane back to the country she fled.
Courttia Newland turns the tables on us, and imagines British citizens fleeing towards the coast, hoping to make it to a safe haven somewhere like Syria. Amanda Craig’s 'Metamorphosis' wreaks Kafka-esque revenge on one of Britain’s nastiest media commentators.
Roma Tearne contributes two heart-rending stories about families torn apart, one from Sri Lanka, one from Iraq. In ‘Shakila’s Head’ by Kate Clanchy, a teacher running a poetry writing class confronts some of the terrible things her young charges have experienced.
There is poetry from Ruth Padel, Hubert Moore and Elaine Feinstein, and essays from Hanif Kureishi, Noo Saro-Wiwa and William Boyd.
The final essay, by AL Kennedy, updated from a lecture she gave at the European Literature Days Festival in October 2015, warns us that the path that leads to a culture of cruelty is well known and that we are in danger of following it. She calls upon artists, and writers in particular, to fight against this. “We can make dreams to lead mankind forward and expressions of individuality that can make many free,” she writes. “Without those dreams, we face only nightmares.”
A much needed antidote to mass media vitriol, and a reminder of the humanity of each and every individual forced to flee their own country.
This anthology seeks to redress the balance and open readers to a deeper understanding of what drives ordinary people to flee their homes to make a life in a new country. It has been put together by Lucy Popescu, who for the last five years has worked as a volunteer mentor in the Write to Life programme of Freedom from Torture, hearing at first hand the terrible stories of refugee victims of torture, but also discovering their enduring warmth and resilience.
The anthology comprises a mixture of short stories, essays and poems. Given the prominence of refugees in the news, it seems extraordinary to me that publisher after publisher turned it down. So hurrah for Unbound, with their crowdfunding model of publication.
Though the authors are not, for the most part, refugees, many of the stories are drawn from the experiences of family. Sebastian Barry’s ‘Fragment of a Journal, Author Unknown’ takes us back to the ordeal of the Irish famine. Alex Wheatle recalls his father’s journey from Jamaica and Nick Barlay, his parents fleeing Hungary in 1956 as the Soviet tanks rolled in. Katharine Quarmby reflects on her family’s complex mix of migrants and refugees.
In ‘To Avoid Worse’, Joan Smith notes that the romanticisation of the story of Anne Frank obscures that fact that, before they went into hiding, her father tried desperately to get his family out of the country, but was refused visas by countries that might have given them refuge – and draws parallels with the family of Aylan Kurdi.
Hassan Abdulrazzak, who came to Britain with his family as a child refugee from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, reflects on how easy their path now seems in comparison with those trying to escape the war in Syria.
Some of the short stories seem designed to make us squirm. The narrator in Stephen Kelman’s ‘Selfie’ wants the man selling selfie sticks on the streets of Rome to understand he is different from all the other people ignoring him, even though he’ll do nothing to help him. In AL Kennedy’s ‘Inappropriate Staring’ two people eat their lunch outside the high fence of a detention centre while discussing the detainees like animals in the zoo. In Marina Lewyska’s ‘Hard Luck Story’, a security guard turns a deaf ear to the pleas of a woman he must put on a plane back to the country she fled.
Courttia Newland turns the tables on us, and imagines British citizens fleeing towards the coast, hoping to make it to a safe haven somewhere like Syria. Amanda Craig’s 'Metamorphosis' wreaks Kafka-esque revenge on one of Britain’s nastiest media commentators.
Roma Tearne contributes two heart-rending stories about families torn apart, one from Sri Lanka, one from Iraq. In ‘Shakila’s Head’ by Kate Clanchy, a teacher running a poetry writing class confronts some of the terrible things her young charges have experienced.
There is poetry from Ruth Padel, Hubert Moore and Elaine Feinstein, and essays from Hanif Kureishi, Noo Saro-Wiwa and William Boyd.
The final essay, by AL Kennedy, updated from a lecture she gave at the European Literature Days Festival in October 2015, warns us that the path that leads to a culture of cruelty is well known and that we are in danger of following it. She calls upon artists, and writers in particular, to fight against this. “We can make dreams to lead mankind forward and expressions of individuality that can make many free,” she writes. “Without those dreams, we face only nightmares.”
A much needed antidote to mass media vitriol, and a reminder of the humanity of each and every individual forced to flee their own country.
May 23, 2019
3.5
An uneven collection, this book also had the disadvantage of following some similar anthologies that I enjoyed more.
While I appreciate the intent to explore the refugee story in all its aspects and to transform how they are seen by Britain as a whole, I personally was looking for less fiction and more marginalized voices. This is not solely the book's fault, as the contents are made clear to the reader. The pieces that were what I was looking for (non-fiction, especially those by asylum seekers or their relatives, as well as the piece on Anne Frank's legacy) were compelling and powerful.
An uneven collection, this book also had the disadvantage of following some similar anthologies that I enjoyed more.
While I appreciate the intent to explore the refugee story in all its aspects and to transform how they are seen by Britain as a whole, I personally was looking for less fiction and more marginalized voices. This is not solely the book's fault, as the contents are made clear to the reader. The pieces that were what I was looking for (non-fiction, especially those by asylum seekers or their relatives, as well as the piece on Anne Frank's legacy) were compelling and powerful.
November 15, 2018
A heartbreaking collection of stories that proves that everyone suffers a little more than they should. Making real the trivial conversations in the media, Popescu cultivates a well of mind-opening material to give you a piece of another world.
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November 28, 2025Even sadder than you think it will be. How this book was published 9 years ago and this topic has become more pressing and urgent in the past years, brings to light how we are failing as humanity.
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September 19, 2016808.80352 C85581 2016
November 6, 2016
A wonderful range of perspectives on the issue of the day by turn amusing to harrowing leaving you wiser on reflecting on injustices in life.
November 19, 2016
Review coming soon
March 27, 2017
This book is an anthology of short stories, poems, lectures and other writings, the main theme of which, as the title suggests, is "migrants". It starts with a fragment of a journal written by an unknown author which tells, quite graphically, the horrors of the Potato Famine in Ireland in the 19th century. It is the story of one boy's flight to Canada, initially with his father and brother and, finally on his own, from that dreadful catastrophe. The other contributions that stick in my mind are "Shakila's Head" by Kate Clancy, "The Dog Shaped Hole in the Garden" by Hassan Abdulrazzak, "Alfred and Vincent" by Alex Wheatley, "To Avoid Worse" by Joan Smith and, finally, "The Migrants" by A L Kennedy which was an opening lecture she gave to the European Literature Days festival in October 2015. If anyone wants to inform themselves of what it is like to be a migrant and the devastating psychological effect of being forced to leave one's home, then all you have to do is pick up this book.
The one contribution I have left till last is one that will stay with me, I feel, until the day I die - "The Colour of Pomegranates" by Roma Tearne. I shan't outline the tale here - if you want to know more - buy the book and read it!!
The one contribution I have left till last is one that will stay with me, I feel, until the day I die - "The Colour of Pomegranates" by Roma Tearne. I shan't outline the tale here - if you want to know more - buy the book and read it!!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews