No Friend But the Mountains

This book won the most prestigious literary prize in Australia in 2018. It’s genesis is a harrowing story. The author, a kurdish Iranian refugee attempted multiple hazardous boat crossings to Ausralia with people smugglers. Once their boat almost sunk. He wrote this book via txt msg on a hidden mobile and it captured a story the Australian government had spent years trying to dampen (they even passed legislation makingit a criminal offence to speak of or publish anything about the conditions of refugees on Manus Island). It blew the case wide open, about the plight of refugees indefinitely sentenced to detention on Manus Island in the pacific. He was finally granted asylum in NZ.