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Freedom, Only Freedom

The Prison Writings of Behrouz Boochani
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( 81 ratings, 14 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Set against the brutal backdrop of a detention centre on Manus Island, Freedom, Only Freedom, by Behrouz Boochani, provides a profound insight into the oppressive conditions and the human rights issues faced by asylum seekers. Through a powerful narrative, Boochani sheds light on the resilience, courage, and despair experienced by those trapped in a seemingly unending cycle of detention and waiting. This book combines a journalistic approach with poetic prose to offer both a deeply personal and universally relevant exploration of freedom and survival.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you're interested in a powerful testament to human resilience and advocacy for refugee rights, as it provides a profound insight into the struggles faced in detention. It blends literary storytelling with a poignant and passionate call for justice and highlights the inhumanity of immigration policies through first-hand experience.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

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. His work reflects the indignity and plight of the many thousands of detained migrants across the world.

In Freedom, Only Freedom, 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 also 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.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Freedom, Only Freedom by Behrouz Boochani has been praised for its powerful critique of the inhumanity of Australia's offshore detention system. Boochani's writings are described as poetic and moving, highlighting both the brutality experienced by refugees and the resilience and humanity of his fellow inmates. The book is considered essential reading for those seeking to understand issues of moral responsibility and human rights in the context of contemporary migration and detention policies.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780755649358

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 15 November 2022

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Contributors:

  • Edited by Moones Mansoubi
  • Edited by Omid Tofighian

Audience: General / adult, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Width: 153.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 344

About the Author

Behrouz Boochani is a Kurdish-Iranian writer, journalist, scholar, cultural advocate and filmmaker. Boochani was a writer and editor for the Kurdish language magazine Werya in Iran. He is a Visiting Professor, Birkbeck Law School; Associate Professor in Social Sciences at UNSW; non-resident Visiting Scholar at the Sydney Asia Pacific Migration Centre (SAPMiC), University of Sydney; Honorary Member of PEN International; and winner of an Amnesty International Australia 2017 Media Award, the Diaspora Symposium Social Justice Award, the Liberty Victoria 2018 Empty Chair Award, and the Anna Politkovskaya award for journalism. He publishes regularly with The Guardian, and his writing also features in The Saturday Paper, Huffington Post, New Matilda, The Financial Times and The Sydney Morning Herald. Boochani is also co-director (with Arash Kamali Sarvestani) of the 2017 feature-length film Chauka, Please Tell Us The Time; and collaborator on Nazanin Sahamizadeh’s play Manus. His book, No Friend But The Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison won the 2019 Victorian Prize for Literature in addition to the Nonfiction category. He has also won the Special Award at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, the Australian Book Industry Award for Nonfiction Book of the Year, and the National Biography Prize.


Omid Tofighian is Adjunct Lecturer in the School of the Arts and Media, University of New South Wales; and Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck Law, University of London. He is an award-winning lecturer, researcher and community advocate, combining philosophy with interests in citizen media, popular culture, displacement and discrimination. He is the translator of Behrouz Boochani's multi-award winning book No Friend but the Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison (2018).

Moones Mansoubi is a community, arts and cultural development worker based in Sydney. Her work is dedicated mainly to supporting and collaborating with migrants and people seeking asylum in Australia. She has managed numerous community and cultural projects and the first translator of Behrouz Boochani’s work when he began writing from Manus Island. She was translation consultant for Boochani’s book No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison (Picador Australia 2018). Her translation of the article “An Island Off Manus” (Saturday Paper 6 May, 2017) was included in Boochani’s winning nomination for the Amnesty Media Award in 2017. Moones has a Masters Degree in International Relations and is passionate about social justice and social cohesion. She is currently coordinator of the Community Refugee Welcome Centre in Inner West Sydney and a content producer for SBS Radio, Persian program.

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