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    Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian - My Story of Rescue, Hope, and Triumph
    Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian - My Story of Rescue, Hope, and Triumph
    Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian - My Story of Rescue, Hope, and Triumph
    Audiobook10 hours

    Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian - My Story of Rescue, Hope, and Triumph

    Written by Yusra Mardini

    Narrated by Lameece Issaq

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Butterfly is an inspiring audiobook about how one woman saved fellow refugees from drowning—and how she went on to become an Olympic swimmer.

    When young Syrian refugee Yusra Mardini realized her boat's engine shut down as she was traveling from Syria to Greece with other refugees, there was no hesitation: she dove into the water. Surfacing, she heard desperate prayers and sobbing from the passengers in the sinking boat above her. Between the waves, her elder sister Sarah screamed at her to get back on the boat. But Mardini was determined. She was not going to let Sarah do this alone. Grabbing the rope with one hand, she began kicking up the black water, inching the boat towards the distant shore.

    This bold act of bravery saved the lives of a boatload of refugees heading to Turkey from Syria. After her arrival in Greece, Mardini, focused and undeterred, worked toward a lifelong goal: to compete in the Olympics. She succeeded, and competed in 2016 on the Refugee Olympic Team in Rio de Janeiro.

    Butterfly tells her story, from Syria, to the Olympics, to her current work with the UN as a Goodwill Ambassador. Mardini is eager to tell her story in the hopes that listeners will remember that refugees are ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, chased from their homes by a devastating war.

    Praise for Butterfly:

    "War, for all its atrocities, is punctuated by instances of unfathomable human spirit and grace. Olympic swimmer Yusra Mardini’s story is a prime example. Butterfly recounts this Syrian refugee’s extraordinary tale of bravery, survival, and winsome, never-give-up moxie. It is impossible not to be won over by Yusra, who once swam for her life at sea and is now fighting for the dignity and wellbeing of countless refugees like her whose lives have been upturned by war." — Khaled Hosseini, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns

    "Part coming-of-age story, part sports narrative, part migrant journey, Mardini's book is cinematic even as it is deeply intimate and rooted in place." — New York Times Book Review

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateMay 15, 2018
    ISBN9781427298324
    Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian - My Story of Rescue, Hope, and Triumph
    Author

    Yusra Mardini

    Yusra Mardini is an Olympic swimmer and Syrian refugee who, in 2015, fled her hometown of Damascus when it became too dangerous to live in the war-torn country. Mardini swam with the Refugee Olympic Team at Rio de Janeiro 2016 and Tokyo 2020 and was named the youngest ever UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. The Malala Fund named Yusra in their list of Game Changers and she is also one of the hundred women featured in Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls. She lives in Hamburg where she continues to train and compete internationally. A major Netflix film documenting her life is due to release in 2022, written by Jack Thorne.

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