After a bomb detonates in the shopping mall near his home, Sami and his family flee the civil war that threatens them in their beloved home of Damascus, Syria. With just the clothes on their back, they sell all their possessions for a place on one of the boats leaving under the cover of darkness for the shores of Greece.
A harrowing journey across the murky night-time waters not only opens Sami’s eyes to the desperation of his people but ensures his journey to a safer home remains with him, haunting his dreams as he tries to embrace his new life as an asylum seeker in the UK.
Some of the family members they now live with are unsympathetic to their plea for a better life and Sami blames his family’s downturn in luck on himself and the choices he’s made before and since their arrival. A new school and friends are not enough to settle the feelings of inadequacy and he longs for home and the life he had in Damascus.
However, Sami begins to realise that with the help of his friends, the love of his family and a roof over his head, things are looking up and he must embrace his new life in order to be happy once again.
A.M. Dassu’s ‘Boy, Everywhere’ is one of the most important books I have read this year so far. We need to eradicate the stigma on those who have risked everything to create a better world for their families.
This book tells the heart-breaking story of a family doing just that. This amazing story should be on every book shelf, in every school and library, and included in curriculum’s across the country so the message of hope and understanding for those seeking asylum can be shared.
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