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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
    The Lightless Sky: A Twelve-Year-Old Refugee's Harrowing Escape from Afghanistan and His Extraordinary Journey Across Half the World
    The Lightless Sky: A Twelve-Year-Old Refugee's Harrowing Escape from Afghanistan and His Extraordinary Journey Across Half the World
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Lightless Sky: A Twelve-Year-Old Refugee's Harrowing Escape from Afghanistan and His Extraordinary Journey Across Half the World

    Written by Gulwali Passarlay

    Narrated by Assaf Cohen and Susan Duerden

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    A gripping, inspiring, and eye-opening memoir of fortitude and survival—of a twelve-year-old boy’s traumatic flight from Afghanistan to the West—that puts a face to one of the most shocking and devastating humanitarian crises of our time.

    “To risk my life had to mean something. Otherwise what was it all for?”

    In 2006, after his father was killed, Gulwali Passarlay was caught between the Taliban who wanted to recruit him, and the Americans who wanted to use him. To protect her son, Gulwali’s mother sent him away. The search for safety would lead the twelve-year-old across eight countries, from the mountains of eastern Afghanistan through Iran and Europe to Britain. Over the course of twelve harrowing months, Gulwali endured imprisonment, hunger, cruelty, brutality, loneliness, and terror—and nearly drowned crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Eventually granted asylum in England, Gulwali was sent to a good school, learned English, won a place at a top university, and was chosen to help carry the Olympic Torch in the 2012 London Games.

    In The Lightless Sky, Gulwali recalls his remarkable experience and offers a firsthand look at one of the most pressing issues of our time: the modern refugee crisis—the worst displacement of millions of men, women, and children in generations. Few, like Gulwali, make it to a country that offers the chance of freedom and opportunity. A celebration of courage and determination, The Lightless Sky is a poignant account of an exceptional human being who is today an ardent advocate of democracy—and a reminder of our responsibilities to those caught in terrifying and often deadly circumstances beyond their control.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJan 5, 2016
    ISBN9780062470690
    Author

    Gulwali Passarlay

    Gulwali Passarlay was sent away from Afghanistan as a young boy, fleeing the conflict that had claimed his father’s life. After an extraordinarily tortuous journey across eight countries, Gulwali arrived in the United Kingdom a year later and has most recently devoted his new life to education. Now twenty-one years old, he is set to graduate from the University of Manchester with a degree in politics. Gulwali is a member of many prestigious political, aid, and youth groups, each a stepping-stone to his ultimate goal: to run for the presidency of Afghanistan.

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    4.5/5

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    • 5/5
      An extraordinary book by a remarkable man. An epic journey of hardship and resilience having been forced to flee Afghanistan. at 12 years old, his mother makes the ultimate sacrifice by sending him and his 13 year old brother off in the hands of 'agents' who will assist the journey across Europe to Italy. This is a page turner in a way that is difficult to comprehend. Gulwali is clearly destined to be a champion for the cause of refugees and hopefully an instrument for change for good in his home country. I applaud him in the highest way possible and wish him all the best.