Malala Yousafzai

I think this book has a laudable purpose, it just feels rather that it is aimed at a younger readership, as there's a lack of nuance in here.
I'm reminded of the quote, the death of 1 man is a tragedy, that of millions a statistic. We often hear of refugees in terms of the numbers trying to cross or the number seeking asylum. It isn't often that those faceless numbers become human. This books aims, in part, to do that, to tell individual stories of some of those many people.
It selects just women, mostly young, and tells their story. That means that for the most part they aren't the ones faced with the decision to leave, they are caught up in that decision. The mixed emotions between the leaving behind something that was familiar,even if now dangerous, and moving to something entirely new and scary is there, but glossed over. Their stories all ended up sounding very similar, there was little in the way of individual voices here and the stories had a cookie cutter feel about them. It is a book with laudable aim, but it didn't land.… (mer)