Kirjahaku

Behrouz Boochani, author, filmmaker and journalist wrote his profound and powerful poetic political manifesto A Letter From Manus Island after four years incarceration as a stateless refugee on Manus in Australian-run camps. His letter, a humanitarian message, translated by Omid Tofighian, is published with a preface by Ruth Skilbeck in this pamphlet. First published in 2018. This edition, published in 2023, has the addition of biographical notes.

Over six years of imprisonment in Australia’s offshore migrant detention centre, the Kurdish-Iranian journalist and writer Behrouz Boochani bore personal witness to the suffering and degradation inflicted on him and his fellow refugees, culminating eventually in his prize-winning book – No Friend but the Mountains. In the articles, essays, and poems he wrote while detained, he emerged as both a tenacious campaigner and activist, as well as a deeply humane voice which reflects the indignity and plight of the many thousands of detained migrants across the world.In this book Boochani’s collected writings are combined with essays from experts on migration, refugee rights, politics, and literature. Together, they provide a moving, creative and challenging account of not only one writer’s harrowing experience and inspiring resilience, but the wider structures of violence which hold thousands of human beings in a state of misery in migrant camps throughout Western nation-states and beyond.

"Our government jailed his body, but his soul remained that of a free man." -- From the Foreword by Man Booker Prize-winning author Richard FlanaganIn 2013, Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani was illegally detained on Manus Island, a refugee detention centre off the coast of Australia.He has been there ever since.This book is the result. Laboriously tapped out on a mobile phone and translated from the Farsi.It is a voice of witness, an act of survival. A lyric first-hand account. A cry of resistance. A vivid portrait of five years of incarceration and exile. Winner of the Victorian Premier's Prize for Literature, Australia's richest literary prize, No Friend But the Mountains is an extraordinary account -- one that is disturbingly representative of the experience of the many stateless and imprisoned refugees and migrants around the world.

The Award-winning International Bestselling Story of One Man's Six Year Detention in Australia ‘A powerfully vivid account of the experiences of a refugee: desperation, brutality, suffering, and all observed with an eye that seems to see everything and told in a voice that’s equal to the task.' - Phillip PullmanIn 2013, Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani sought asylum in Australia but was instead illegally imprisoned in the country’s most notorious detention centre on Manus Island. This book is the result.Boochani spent nearly five years typing passages of this book one text at a time from a secret mobile phone in prison. Compiled and translated from Farsi, they form an incredible story of how escaping political persecution in Iran, he ended up trapped as a stateless person. This vivid, gripping portrait of his years of incarceration and exile shines devastating light on the fates of so many people, as borders close around the world.No Friend but the Mountains is both a brave act of witness and a moving testament to the humanity of all people, in the most extreme of circumstances.'A brilliant book. No Friend but the Mountains can rightly take its place on the shelf of world prison literature . . . It is a profound victory for a young poet who showed us all how much words can still matter.' - Richard Flanagan, Booker Prize winning author of The Narrow Road to the Deep North

I 2013 flyktet den kurdiske journalisten Behrouz Boochani fra fødelandet Iran. Etter en farefull ferd gjennom Indonesia og over havet, ble han sperret inne på Manus Island, en øy i Stillehavet hvor Australia gjennom en årrekke har internert uønskede flyktninger og asylsøkere. Der ble han sittende ulovlig i seks år. Bare fjellene er min venn er hans vitnesbyrd fra flukten og tiden i fangenskap. Boken ble til gjennom tusenvis av tekst- og talemeldinger han smuglet ut, og er en unik øyenvitneskildring om å være på flukt og miste kontrollen over eget liv. Boochani skriver rått og uhindret om motstand, håp og (u)menneskelighet innad fengselssystemet på Manus, om hvordan herskerfolket tvinger flyktningene til enten å bukke under for volden og undertrykkelsen, eller la seg deportere. Boken er en litterær kraftprestasjon i flere sjangere som ga Boochani den viktigste litteraturprisen i Australia, Victorian Premier's Prize for Literature. Boochanis beskrivelse av australske myndigheters behandling av flyktninger er også en fortelling om hvordan samfunn ser og møter mennesker på flukt. Boken gir viktige perspektiver knyttet til global solidaritet og retten til å leve et liv i fred. Etterordet er skrevet av forfatter, oversetter og aktivist Kristina Quintano, også kjent som Budbringeren fra helvete. Hun setter Boochanis historie og Australias omstridte asylpolitikk i en større sammenheng, som også inkluderer måten Norge forplikter seg på og forholdene de stedene Norge henter flyktninger fra i dag.

I 2013 flygter den kurdiske journalist Behrouz Boochani ud af sit fødeland Iran. Efter en farefuld færd over havet bliver han samlet op og indespærret på Manus Island, en ø i Stillehavet nord for Papua Ny Guinea. I fem år holdes han ulovligt interneret i asylcentret Manus Fængsel. Kun bjergene er min ven er hans vidnesbyrd. Smuglet ud af lejren én sms ad gangen er bogen en unik insiderfortælling og en litterær kraftpræstation i mange genrer. Den er også en oprørsk stemme, der vidner om trods, håb og menneskelighed i et umenneskeligt system. Har kurderne andre venner end bjergene? Bogens mange tekstbidder er samlet og oversat fra persisk af Omid Tofighian, som også har forsynet fortællingen med et efterord om den særlige tilblivelseshistorie. Denne danske udgave indledes med et forord af Carsten Jensen.