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A review by booksjessreads
The Naked Don't Fear the Water: A Journey Through the Refugee Underground by Matthieu Aikins
dark
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
5.0
This is perhaps one of the best non-fiction books I have ever read. I am so glad I did the StoryGraph genre challenge this year so I could stumble across this incredible travel memoir.
Aikins tells such a brutally honest and detailed account of the underground road for refugees from Afghanistan and across Europe with his friend Omar, Omar's family and other refugee's that they meet along the way. I really appreciated the balance of written experience and information sharing throughout the book. I learned so much, especially about the boundaries of the Schengen zone and the Dublin Regulation, and how these conventions and laws affected their journey across Europe.
I felt the way that Aikins told the story was incredible. His style was slow but it meant the reader can absorb so much information. The writing was generally easy to read, minus the atrocious events that detail the lives of some refugees. Furthermore, there was no false hope or exaggeration of events. The book felt authentic and reflective.
I would recommend this to everyone because it is absolutely essential reading to truly understand the life of refugees on the smugglers road.
Aikins tells such a brutally honest and detailed account of the underground road for refugees from Afghanistan and across Europe with his friend Omar, Omar's family and other refugee's that they meet along the way. I really appreciated the balance of written experience and information sharing throughout the book. I learned so much, especially about the boundaries of the Schengen zone and the Dublin Regulation, and how these conventions and laws affected their journey across Europe.
I felt the way that Aikins told the story was incredible. His style was slow but it meant the reader can absorb so much information. The writing was generally easy to read, minus the atrocious events that detail the lives of some refugees. Furthermore, there was no false hope or exaggeration of events. The book felt authentic and reflective.
I would recommend this to everyone because it is absolutely essential reading to truly understand the life of refugees on the smugglers road.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use
Moderate: Death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Police brutality, and War
Minor: Confinement and Rape