Since her childhood, Yusra Mardini’s dream was to become a professional swimmer and represent Syria in Olympic sports tournaments, but the intensification of the battles in Damascus in 2015 reduced her dream to just survival. Like tens of thousands of Syrians dreaming of living in peace, Yusra set off with her sister Sarah, and some of their relatives, on the terrible asylum journey to Europe, carrying with them their dreams of a safe life and resuming professional swimming, but in the middle of the trip between Turkey and Greece, the rubber boat’s engine stopped working. Work, and the boat loaded with passengers began to sink, and despite their many attempts to call for help, no one responded to them. Seventeen-year-old Yusra, her sister, and some other passengers jumped off the boat. To lose weight, they swam with it until they reached Greece, after which the sisters continued their dangerous journey overland to Germany. From swimming to save her life and the lives of her friends, to swimming with a dream of an Olympic medal, Yusra tells her extraordinary story from a refugee fleeing a war-torn country to an Olympian in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil. ***** Yousra, we could not be more proud of you for your courage, your ability to resist difficulties, and for the wonderful example you set for children everywhere. Former US President Barack Obama
Alone on Baraway Island, Ingrid lives after everyone has left, roaming the ruins, repairing what can be repaired, and catching fish and bodies that wash up on the island's shores. The young woman struggles to hide a big secret that could put her in danger, as the country witnesses the final months of World War II.
In this novel, Roy Jacobsen completes the story of Barawe Island, which began with "The Invisibles", with his delicate narration, natural images, and brief sentences that hide the truest and hottest feelings behind them.
“White Sea” is a novel about new beginnings that make their way from the ashes of a devastating war, about friendships and love, the faces of those passing by and the dead, and about people who remain where they are in the face of war, bidding farewell to the departed and receiving those returning, and monitoring the passing of days and the succession of seasons.
On a deep wound that requires ages to heal, the novelist, Kim Ecklin, presses to open a biography of genocide, and travels from the farthest west to the farthest east, to tell part of the tragedy of an Asian country, recording part of the testimonies of the living survivors, and those who wrote small signs, bearing two words. “We will not forget,” and they hung it on tree trunks, and it was also motivated by the story of a woman she met in the market of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, who lost all of her family members at that time, and when the Canadian author asked her: “Can I help?” What can I do? Her answer was: “Nothing, I just wanted you to know.”
