To the charity workers, Dadaab refugee camp is a humanitarian crisis; to the Kenyan government, it is a 'nursery for terrorists'; to the western media, it is a dangerous no-go area; but to its half a million residents, it is their last resort.
Situated hundreds of miles from any other settlement, deep within the inhospitable desert of northern Kenya where only thorn bushes grow, Dadaab is a city like no other. Its buildings are made from mud, sticks or plastic, its entire economy is grey, and its citizens survive on rations and luck. Over the course of four years, Ben Rawlence became a first-hand witness to a strange and desperate limbo-land, getting to know many of those who have come there seeking sanctuary. Among them are Guled, a former child soldier who lives for football; Nisho, who scrapes an existence by pushing a wheelbarrow and dreaming of riches; Tawane, the indomitable youth leader; and schoolgirl Kheyro, whose future hangs upon her education.
In City of Thorns, Rawlence interweaves the stories of nine individuals to show what life is like in the camp and to sketch the wider political forces that keep the refugees trapped there. Rawlence combines intimate storytelling with broad socio-political investigative journalism, doing for Dadaab what Katherinee Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers did for the Mumbai slums. Lucid, vivid and illuminating,City of Thorns is an urgent human story with deep international repercussions, brought to life through the people who call Dadaab home. Read Online Book City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp by Ben Rawlence Full Free
Review :
"[A] remarkable book…. Like Dadaab itself, the story has no conclusion. Iti is a portrait, beautifully and moving painted. And it is more than that. At a time when newspapers are filled with daily images of refugees arriving in boats on Europe’s shores, when politicians and governments grapple with solutions to migration and erect ever larger walls and fences, it is an important reminder that a vast majority of the world’s refugees never get as far as a boat or a border of the developed world. They remain, like the inhabitants of Dadaab, in an indefinite limbo of penury and fear, unwanted and largely forgotten.”―The New York Times Book Review
"[An] ambitious, morally urgent new book."―The New York Times
“Magisterial….We see Dadaab through an accumulation of vivid impressions….[The book] moves like a thriller.”―Los Angeles Times
“The most absorbing book in recent memory about life in refugee camps… Mr. Rawlence’s major feat is stripping away the anonymity that so often is attached to the word “refugee” by delving deeply into the lives of nine people in the camp. By doing so, he transforms its denizens from faceless victims into three-dimensional human beings. Along the way, Dadaab emerges from the ever-present heat and dust to become much more than a refugee camp. It is a real, if very peculiar, city.”―Howard French, The Wall Street Journal
"In light of the contemporary crisis, City of Thorns serves as a cautionary tale. Rawlence's portrait of nine Dadaab residents offers a stark counterpoint to the rhetoric that too often speaks for refugees....This is a vital book at a critical moment in global history."―Minneapolis Star Tribune
"[An] ambitious, morally urgent new book."―The New York Times
“Magisterial….We see Dadaab through an accumulation of vivid impressions….[The book] moves like a thriller.”―Los Angeles Times
“The most absorbing book in recent memory about life in refugee camps… Mr. Rawlence’s major feat is stripping away the anonymity that so often is attached to the word “refugee” by delving deeply into the lives of nine people in the camp. By doing so, he transforms its denizens from faceless victims into three-dimensional human beings. Along the way, Dadaab emerges from the ever-present heat and dust to become much more than a refugee camp. It is a real, if very peculiar, city.”―Howard French, The Wall Street Journal
"In light of the contemporary crisis, City of Thorns serves as a cautionary tale. Rawlence's portrait of nine Dadaab residents offers a stark counterpoint to the rhetoric that too often speaks for refugees....This is a vital book at a critical moment in global history."―Minneapolis Star Tribune
“City of Thorns…brilliantly details the intimate histories of residents of Dadaab, a massive, United Nations-maintained camp in Kenya for people stuck in legal limbo after escaping from sectarian violence in Somalia.”―Chicago Tribune
“Rawlence...is more than able to move the reader, introducing us to some of the people in Dadaab in his exceptional first book.”―Newsday
“Rawlence...is more than able to move the reader, introducing us to some of the people in Dadaab in his exceptional first book.”―Newsday
“Gripping.”―The Economist
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City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp
City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp from Ben Rawlence
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