{UAH} RECOMMENDED READING

Read this book at my local Chapters bookstore. Couldnt finish so decided to buy.

Nujeen Mustafa's story came to the world's attention in September last year when the BBC correspondent Fergal Keane interviewed her as she was trying to cross from Serbia into Hungary with her older sister Nasrine. Despite the gruelling journey, Nujeen was optimistic and courageous: "You should fight to get what you want in this world," she told him. She was on "a journey for a new life".

What made her story all the more remarkable was that Nujeen Mustafa, born with cerebral palsy, had made the journey across sand, rocky mountains and rough waters in a wheelchair. Now her remarkable story has been told in greater detail in this book, co-written with the Sunday Times foreign correspondent Christina Lamb. Lamb also co-wrote I Am Malala with the Nobel prize laureate Malala Yousafzai.

Mustafa, one of nine children born to a Kurdish family, grew up in Aleppo. She "barely ever left" her home on the fifth floor of an apartment block and instead explored the world through literature — one of her favourite novels is Gone with the Wind — and television. She obsessively watched documentaries on the National Geographic channel, and learnt English as a result of her addiction to the US soap opera Days of Our Lives.

She describes how the bombing, once so terrifying, became everyday and she could not "remember normal any more". In August last year she and Nasrine began their journey to Europe. "There's no life left in Syria," another refugee says to her. "It's like being in a burning house — it's risky to jump out of the window, but what's the alternative?"

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

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"Even a small dog can piss on a tall building" Jim Hightower

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