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'It is night, and two boys are crossing a river that is also a border. They have nothing but the clothes on their backs, their inheritance stitched into the lining of a belt, and the courage of an enormous gamble: that Europe will offer them a future they can no longer wait for in Afghanistan.
Travelling by truck, by boat, by train, by bus and on foot, Aryan and his younger brother Kabir have embarked on an epic journey, clinging to an itinerary they repeat like a mantra so as not to lose their way: Kabul Tehran Istanbul Athens Rome Paris London. There are moments of wonder and adventure but also battles against cold, heat, hunger, violence and exhaustion. Whether they are harvesting half-frozen oranges in Greece, or hiding behind a false wall on a truck to Italy, or sleeping under the rafters of a sawmill in France, the brothers are exploited for their labour, hustled for their money and ignored by almost everyone, except the police.
Hinterland is a novel about two children in the aftermath of trauma; underage, homeless and invisible in a foreign land. It shows what happens when the adult world rushes in, and what our universe looks like from the other side of the glass, to those displaced children who are out there, even now, on the road. Source: Allen & Unwin (Sighted 17/02/2012).
Notes
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Epigraph: When you start on the way to Ithaca, Wish that way be long. C.P. Cavafy.
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Epigraph: How should I make a life. Jawad, 14.
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Dedication: For Navid, Bashir, Hamid, Alixe, Jawed, Jawad, Ramin, Ramzi, Nazibullah, Rahim, Mushtaba, Ali, Mohammed, Hussein, Sohrab, Reza and Qasim.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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In Search of Refuge
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 30 - 31 July 2011; (p. 23)
— Review of Hinterland 2012 single work novel -
Moving Mantra in Refugees' Flight
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 30 July 2011; (p. 25)
— Review of Hinterland 2012 single work novel
-
Moving Mantra in Refugees' Flight
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 30 July 2011; (p. 25)
— Review of Hinterland 2012 single work novel -
In Search of Refuge
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 30 - 31 July 2011; (p. 23)
— Review of Hinterland 2012 single work novel