…ambitious, morally urgent…Dadaab pops in three dimensions in City of Thorns. Readers will get a sharp sense of its folkways; its unwritten rules and adhocracies; its hardy but mostly parasitical economy, based on smuggled goods and the resale of United Nations rations. They'll start to grasp the limits of relief agencies and the United Nations, and what kinds of unsavory compromises are required to care for the world's neediest.
The New York Times - Jennifer Senior
★ 08/24/2015
"[A] remarkable book...Like Dadaab itself, the story has no conclusion. It is a portrait, beautifully and movingly painted. And it is more than that. At a time when newspapers are filled with daily images of refugees arriving in boats on Europe’s shores, when politicians and governments grapple with solutions to migration and erect ever larger walls and fences, it is an important reminder that a vast majority of the world’s refugees never get as far as a boat or a border of the developed world.”—Caroline Moorehead, The New York Times Book Review The Wall Street Journal — Associated Press —The New York Times Los Angeles Times City of Thorns serves as a cautionary tale. Rawlence's portrait of nine Dadaab residents offers a stark counterpoint to the rhetoric that too often speaks for refugees....This is a vital book at a critical moment in global history."—Minneapolis Star Tribune The Economist Beyond the Beautiful Forevers . This is an important book that will open your eyes and your heart.”—Everyday eBook The Sunday Times (London) Behind the Beautiful Forevers (2012) are spot-on."—Booklist (starred review)Kirkus Reviews “By combining his own experiences with interviews with residents of Dadaab, [Rawlence] makes the human rights crisis-rarely covered in the media-vivid and immediate for readers....This is a compelling examination of the tragedy of a place where one 'can only survive...by imagining a life elsewhere.'”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) "City of Thorns is a powerful and timely reminder of how unresolved conflicts, from Somalia to Syria, have contributed to the unprecedented global refugee crisis. Ben Rawlence's intimate, vivid portrait of the forgotten refugees in Dadaab is a much needed effort to close the humanity gap between the West and the rest. A must-read."—Kim Ghattas, author of The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power “City of Thorns is a brilliant if haunting book that reveals just what it means to be numbered among the countless tens of thousands of refugees whose existence has been shattered by conflict, who survive with nothing, cast adrift from tradition and security, obliged to cobble together shadow lives from the detritus of memory and lost dreams. It is at once both an intimate story of redemption and hope, a prayer for the innocent, and a damning universal indictment of all those whose monstrous acts and vainglorious ambitions unleash the dogs of war.”—Wade Davis, author of Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest “The most important book I've read in a long time. Not only does it make plain modern geopolitics, and what makes a refugee, it holds deeper truths about humanity and the system we have designed to preserve it when all seems lost. I worked in these camps at the height of this crisis. I needed this book. As we face a world with more people displaced from their homes than any ever before, City of Thorns is essential reading.”—Dr. James Maskalyk, author of Six Months in Sudan “Where once writers made myths, now increasingly it’s the writer’s job to unmake the myths created by modern media. City of Thorns is a clear-eyed account of people living in limbo and a testament both to human frailty and human resilience....As timely as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring —this book should be required reading.”—Aminatta Forna, author of The Memory of Love “At a time when West governments are obsessing over migrant flows, City of Thorns offers unique insights into what prompts people to abandon their ancestral homes in the first place and the dreams that send them questing for a better life. Researching this book can't have been easy. Ben Rawlence is to be congratulated not just for his accessible writing style, but for his modesty, pluck and determination.”—Michela Wrong, author of In the Footseps of Mr. Kurtz and Borderlines Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, author of Refusing the Veil and The Settler's Cookbook "Written with great integrity and insight, this is an urgent, important book that needs to be read. Through tireless and empathetic reportage Rawlence has worked for 5 years to give Dadaab a voice. Now we should listen."—Owen Sheers, author of I Saw a Man “Compassionate and powerful, this book gets to the heart of the tragedy of Somalia, and the struggles that face those displaced by war and want in eastern Africa. To better understand the current crisis of migration in our modern world, start here.”—David Anderson, professor of African History
author of Refusing the Veil and The Settler's Coo Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
At a time when West governments are obsessing over migrant flows, City of Thorns offers unique insights into what prompts people to abandon their ancestral homes in the first place and the dreams that send them questing for a better life. Researching this book can't have been easy. Ben Rawlence is to be congratulated not just for his accessible writing style, but for his modesty, pluck and determination.
author of In the Footseps of Mr. Kurtz and Borderl Michela Wrong
★ 01/01/2016
2015-09-15
