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A review by mubeenirfan
City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp by Ben Rawlence
4.0
Africa - the continent which is overlooked by the entire world be it world wars, civil wars, unrests, famines or droughts. The only image our mind conjures up when thinking about its people is poverty, AIDS and dying kids. Africa has always been put as a small news item where the headline has almost always been reserved for Europe/America and Middle East.
One such news item often overlooked by people like myself while going through our daily dose of news is Dadaab, the second largest refugee camp in the world, hosted (read, exploited) by Kenya comprising of Somalian refugees fleeing Al Shabab and civil war happening inside Somalia. Ben Rawlence visited the camp several times during last few years and has end up writing a story of different refugees held (actually, incarcerated) in the camp. For these refugees one option is life of endless daily misery in camp or an almost certain death in case of going back. How does one live with that and how do you choose one over the other? (Kenyan government has announced it will close the camp and push all refugees to go back to Somalia).
Some reviewers mentioned that the writing style is cumbersome because the writer keeps going from one refugee to another and that it gets confusing. For me it was hardly an issue and mostly was a smooth read. Emphasis on mostly here and thus 4 stars and not 5.
One such news item often overlooked by people like myself while going through our daily dose of news is Dadaab, the second largest refugee camp in the world, hosted (read, exploited) by Kenya comprising of Somalian refugees fleeing Al Shabab and civil war happening inside Somalia. Ben Rawlence visited the camp several times during last few years and has end up writing a story of different refugees held (actually, incarcerated) in the camp. For these refugees one option is life of endless daily misery in camp or an almost certain death in case of going back. How does one live with that and how do you choose one over the other? (Kenyan government has announced it will close the camp and push all refugees to go back to Somalia).
Some reviewers mentioned that the writing style is cumbersome because the writer keeps going from one refugee to another and that it gets confusing. For me it was hardly an issue and mostly was a smooth read. Emphasis on mostly here and thus 4 stars and not 5.