The author did a great job capturing the viewpoint of his younger self and provided a magnificent narration as well. So glad that this audiobook was one of the SYNC offerings as I probably would never have heard of it otherwise. ( )

YA audio sync summer program work about the author's immigrant experience when parents sent him out of Iran at the age of 9. He was in Turkey until he could get his Visa. The story is good but I could have used more information. What was happening to his parents while he was gone. What happened after. He dedicates this work to his mother's memory. It's a great story. He was lucky that so many people did things to help him and he is lucky that he was so mature for his age. ( )

I listened to this novel from the Audiobook Sync books from this past summer. It’s a memoir of Abbas (read by the author) who has to leave Iran without his parents and spend months in Istanbul alone.

Before the 1980s, Abbas’ family was wealthy, but life changes when the politics changes in 1979. Now children are recruited to the army as early as ages 10 and 11. Abbas’ father won’t be allowed out of Iran, but he hopes Abbas can leave. Abbas’ mother is supposed to leave as well. Unfortunately, the government only allows Abbas to leave. He ends up in Istanbul, Turkey completely alone. A kind and honest taxi driver gets him to an Iranian friendly hotel where the owner treats Abbas well.

Abbas’ intelligence helps him. His father had taught both Abbas and Abbas’ mother what to do in Turkey as far as exchanging money and getting a visa to get to England. Abbas, alone, is able to navigate due to this knowledge and his own smarts. He’s a very likeable kid. The question throughout the memoir is whether he will get his visa to get to England. While waiting, he has a scary and lonely existence, as he is alone at the age of ten in a very large city where he doesn’t speak the language! You’ll be impressed with what he is able to accomplish.

I liked Abbas and am thankful that I don’t live in such a volatile area. I would have liked to have known what happened to many of the people in the book, including his parents, in the years after. ( )

So...I get that this is a memoir and all, but even still, shouldn't there be...conflict of some kind? Everyone is nice to him. Everyone helps hims. No one swindles him. Aside from a little scuffle that was over within a sentence nothing really happens. Boy goes to Turkey. Makes friends with everyone. Gets a couple side jobs. Goes to Britain. Ta-da?
Very weak. ( )

Goodreads summary, 24th October 2015 :This amazing true story of a boy fleeing Tehran on his own during the Iran-Iraq War provides a powerful child's-eye view of political tumult, separation, survival, dreams and triumphs in a moving memoir that chronicles extraordinary times in an ordinary boy's life.
Close to his tenth birthday, Abbas has to leave his parents and friends to escape Tehran. The Iran-Iraq War is at its bloodiest. The ayatollahs, the rulers of Iran, have reduced the age of recruitment into the army. If Abbas doesn't leave soon, he will have to go to war.
In the strange and often frightening city of Istanbul, Abbas has to grow up fast. Living alone for twelve weeks in a rundown hotel, he has to learn to live by his wits, and watch his back. Will he ever get his dream visa to England?

My input : The fact that this is a true story adds so much weight to the reader immersing themselves in the text. Abbas' resilience and perseverance are amazing - I had to keep reading the back of the book's bio on the author, to check that he survived. A truly remarkable and inspirational story. One that should be read by every First World Child so that they realize how trivial their problems really are.

There is a sequel : The Boy with Two Lives ( )