What is it about?
Behrouz Boochani has been incarcerated on Manus Island for six years. His memoir is a testimony to the human costs of a regime of indefinite detention and systematic torture. Written painstakingly in secret texts on his forbidden phone, and sent to refugee advocates in Australia, it has been translated by philosopher and activist, Omid Tofighian, as a labour of love. Boochani faces indefinite detention, under a regime that justifies this inhumane treatment of hundreds of asylum seekers on the grounds of keeping our borders safe and deterring traffickers from bringing more desperate people by sea. Boochani invites the reader to walk for a while in his shoes and see the underside of life without hope of freedom or escape.
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Why is it important?
This review will introduce readers to a personal and unique vision of dystopia in a post-colonial experiment that incarcerates innocent people indefinitely, not because they seek to disrupt or destroy a nation's way of life, but because they seek refuge, safety and freedom from torture, warfare and death in their own countries.
Perspectives
When I read this book, I was moved and horrified by an insider's account of what it is to live without hope of freedom. The memoir is an extraordinary act of courage and truth-telling, and deserves to be read as a significant piece of prison literature and a cry against injustice and inhumanity. It is a scorching critique of refugee policies in Australia, and by extension, globally.
Christina Houen
Curtin University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison, Life Writing, October 2018, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/14484528.2018.1529548.
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