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{"id":6899077218363,"title":"No Friend but the Mountains","handle":"no-friend-but-the-mountains","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of Australia’s richest literary award, \u003ci\u003eNo Friend but the Mountains \u003c\/i\u003eis Kurdish-Iranian journalist and refugee Behrouz Boochani’s account of his detainment on Australia’s notorious Manus Island prison. Composed entirely by text message, this work represents the harrowing experience of stateless and imprisoned refugees and migrants around the world.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 2013, Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani was illegally detained on Manus Island, a refugee detention centre off the coast of Australia. He has been there ever since. This book is the result. Laboriously tapped out on a mobile phone and translated from the Farsi. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a voice of witness, an act of survival. A lyric first-hand account. A cry of resistance. A vivid portrait of five years of incarceration and exile. Winner of the Victorian Prize for Literature, \u003ci\u003eNo Friend but the Mountains \u003c\/i\u003eis an extraordinary account — one that is disturbingly representative of the experience of the many stateless and imprisoned refugees and migrants around the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Our government jailed his body, but his soul remained that of a free man.” — From the Foreword by Man Booker Prize–winning author Richard Flanagan\u003c\/p\u003e","published_at":"2022-06-27T18:18:04-04:00","created_at":"2022-06-27T17:26:39-04:00","vendor":"House of Anansi Press Inc","type":"","tags":["Adult Audiobooks","Adult Bestseller","Adult Course Adoption","Adult Nonfiction","Adult Starred Reviews","Anansi International","By (author) Boochani Behrouz","pub date: 2019-02-11","Translated by Tofighian Omid"],"price":1895,"price_min":1895,"price_max":4000,"available":true,"price_varies":true,"compare_at_price":null,"compare_at_price_min":0,"compare_at_price_max":0,"compare_at_price_varies":false,"variants":[{"id":40499147309115,"title":"trade paperback","option1":"trade paperback","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9781487006839","requires_shipping":true,"taxable":true,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"No Friend but the Mountains - trade paperback","public_title":"trade paperback","options":["trade paperback"],"price":2295,"weight":560,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":"shopify","barcode":"9781487006839","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]},{"id":40499150848059,"title":"epub","option1":"epub","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9781487006846","requires_shipping":false,"taxable":true,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"No Friend but the Mountains - epub","public_title":"epub","options":["epub"],"price":1895,"weight":0,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":null,"barcode":"9781487006846","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]},{"id":40499151142971,"title":"mobi","option1":"mobi","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9781487006853","requires_shipping":false,"taxable":true,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"No Friend but the Mountains - mobi","public_title":"mobi","options":["mobi"],"price":1895,"weight":0,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":null,"barcode":"9781487006853","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]},{"id":40499152650299,"title":"Digital Audio, MP3","option1":"Digital Audio, MP3","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9781487008000","requires_shipping":false,"taxable":true,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"No Friend but the Mountains - Digital Audio, MP3","public_title":"Digital Audio, MP3","options":["Digital Audio, MP3"],"price":4000,"weight":0,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":null,"barcode":"9781487008000","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]},{"id":40499152945211,"title":"Lossless Format Audio, WAV","option1":"Lossless Format Audio, WAV","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9781487008017","requires_shipping":false,"taxable":true,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"No Friend but the Mountains - Lossless Format Audio, WAV","public_title":"Lossless Format Audio, WAV","options":["Lossless Format Audio, WAV"],"price":4000,"weight":0,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":null,"barcode":"9781487008017","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]}],"images":["\/\/houseofanansi.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/BNCImageAPI_449ed4fa-b477-486f-8791-257736caddd0.jpg?v=1656366907"],"featured_image":"\/\/houseofanansi.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/BNCImageAPI_449ed4fa-b477-486f-8791-257736caddd0.jpg?v=1656366907","options":["Title"],"media":[{"alt":"This image is in shades of black and white. A photograph shows a close-up of a face. It shows a man with light skin tone, dark hair, and a beard. Text: No Friend but the Mountains. Writing from Manus Prison. Behrouz Boochani. International Bestseller. Winner of the Victorian Prize for Literature. Translated by Omid Tofighian. Foreword by Richard Flanagan.","id":22284931596347,"position":1,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.667,"height":2700,"width":1800,"src":"\/\/houseofanansi.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/BNCImageAPI_449ed4fa-b477-486f-8791-257736caddd0.jpg?v=1656366907"},"aspect_ratio":0.667,"height":2700,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/houseofanansi.com\/cdn\/shop\/products\/BNCImageAPI_449ed4fa-b477-486f-8791-257736caddd0.jpg?v=1656366907","width":1800}],"requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_groups":[],"content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of Australia’s richest literary award, \u003ci\u003eNo Friend but the Mountains \u003c\/i\u003eis Kurdish-Iranian journalist and refugee Behrouz Boochani’s account of his detainment on Australia’s notorious Manus Island prison. Composed entirely by text message, this work represents the harrowing experience of stateless and imprisoned refugees and migrants around the world.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 2013, Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani was illegally detained on Manus Island, a refugee detention centre off the coast of Australia. He has been there ever since. This book is the result. Laboriously tapped out on a mobile phone and translated from the Farsi. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a voice of witness, an act of survival. A lyric first-hand account. A cry of resistance. A vivid portrait of five years of incarceration and exile. Winner of the Victorian Prize for Literature, \u003ci\u003eNo Friend but the Mountains \u003c\/i\u003eis an extraordinary account — one that is disturbingly representative of the experience of the many stateless and imprisoned refugees and migrants around the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Our government jailed his body, but his soul remained that of a free man.” — From the Foreword by Man Booker Prize–winning author Richard Flanagan\u003c\/p\u003e"}
{"AlsoRecommendedISBN_0":"9780887848346","AlsoRecommendedISBN_1":"9780887849596","AlsoRecommendedISBN_2":"9781487002008","BASICMainSubject":"BIO032000","BASICMainSubjectLiteral":"BIOGRAPHY \u0026 AUTOBIOGRAPHY \/ Social Activists","BiographicalNote":"\u003cp\u003eBEHROUZ BOOCHANI is a Kurdish-Iranian writer, journalist, and adjunct associate professor at the University of NSW. He publishes regularly with The Guardian, and his book, No Friend but the Mountains, won the 2019 Victorian Prize for Literature. It has been published in 23 countries and is currently being adapted for both stage and screen. A political prisoner incarcerated by the Australian government in Papua New Guinea before he escaped in 2019, Boochani now resides in Wellington, New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e","BISACSubjectLiteral_0":"BIOGRAPHY \u0026 AUTOBIOGRAPHY \/ Social Activists","BISACSubjectLiteral_1":"BIOGRAPHY \u0026 AUTOBIOGRAPHY \/ Personal Memoirs","BISACSubjectLiteral_2":"BIOGRAPHY \u0026 AUTOBIOGRAPHY \/ Survival","BISACSubject_0":"BIO032000","BISACSubject_1":"BIO026000","BISACSubject_2":"BIO038000","ContributorBio_0":"\u003cp\u003eBEHROUZ BOOCHANI is a Kurdish-Iranian writer, journalist, and adjunct associate professor at the University of NSW. He publishes regularly with The Guardian, and his book, No Friend but the Mountains, won the 2019 Victorian Prize for Literature. It has been published in 23 countries and is currently being adapted for both stage and screen. A political prisoner incarcerated by the Australian government in Papua New Guinea before he escaped in 2019, Boochani now resides in Wellington, New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n","ContributorBio_1":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOMID TOFIGHIAN\u003c\/strong\u003e is a translator, lecturer, researcher, and community advocate, combining philosophy with interests in citizen media, rhetoric, religion, popular culture, transnationalism, displacement, and discrimination. He completed his Ph.D. in philosophy at Leiden University and graduated with a combined Honours degree in philosophy and studies in religion at the University of Sydney. His current roles include Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the American University in Cairo; Honorary Research Associate for the Department of Philosophy, University of Sydney; faculty at Iran Academia; and campaign manager for Why Is My Curriculum White? — Australasia. He has published numerous book chapters and journal articles, and is author of \u003cem\u003eMyth and Philosophy in Platonic Dialogues\u003c\/em\u003e, and is translator of Behrouz Boochani’s book \u003cem\u003eNo Friend but the Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n","ContributorRole_0":"By (author)","ContributorRole_1":"Translated by","Contributor_0":"Boochani, Behrouz","Contributor_1":"Tofighian, Omid","Description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of Australia’s richest literary award, \u003ci\u003eNo Friend but the Mountains \u003c\/i\u003eis Kurdish-Iranian journalist and refugee Behrouz Boochani’s account of his detainment on Australia’s notorious Manus Island prison. Composed entirely by text message, this work represents the harrowing experience of stateless and imprisoned refugees and migrants around the world.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 2013, Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani was illegally detained on Manus Island, a refugee detention centre off the coast of Australia. He has been there ever since. This book is the result. Laboriously tapped out on a mobile phone and translated from the Farsi. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a voice of witness, an act of survival. A lyric first-hand account. A cry of resistance. A vivid portrait of five years of incarceration and exile. Winner of the Victorian Prize for Literature, \u003ci\u003eNo Friend but the Mountains \u003c\/i\u003eis an extraordinary account — one that is disturbingly representative of the experience of the many stateless and imprisoned refugees and migrants around the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Our government jailed his body, but his soul remained that of a free man.” — From the Foreword by Man Booker Prize–winning author Richard Flanagan\u003c\/p\u003e","EAN":"9781487006839","excerpt_0":"https:\/\/biblioshare.org\/BNCservices\/BNCServices.asmx\/Samples?token=fcf85c1c1b298e99\u0026amp;ean=9781487006839\u0026amp;SAN=\u0026amp;Perspective=excerpt\u0026amp;FileNumber=0","Height":"9","HeightCode":"in","Imprint":"Anansi International","NumberOfPages":"416","OtherText_Accolades_0":"No Friend but the Mountains by Behrouz Boochani will always belong to the canon of literature written under great duress and courage. This unique book should be read by all who care about the stories of our time. No Friend but the Mountains reminds us that no matter how different we may be from one another, whether it’s the colour of our skin, the god we pray to, where we are born, or where we call home, that we have words, language, and literature in common. I celebrate the courage of Boochani, who has pursued this ideal, this love of writing, and the faith in words as a tool to inform, to be a doorway to new and unexpected worlds, challenge tyrannies, and seek justice.","OtherText_Accolades_0_Auth":"Jennifer Clement","OtherText_Accolades_0_Src":"Jennifer Clement","OtherText_Accolades_1":"Under atrocious conditions [Behrouz Boochani] has managed to write and publish a record of his experiences (experiences yet to be concluded), a record that will certainly leave his jailers gnashing their teeth . . . No Friend but the Mountains provides a wholly engrossing account of the first four years that Boochani spent on Manus, up to the time when the prison camp was closed and the prisoners resettled elsewhere on the island. Just as absorbing is his analysis of the system that reigns in the camp, a system imposed by the Australian authorities but autonomous in the sense that it holds the jailers as well as the prisoners in its grip . . . [No Friend but the Mountains is] the absorbing record of a life-transforming episode whose effects on his inner self the writer is still trying to plumb.","OtherText_Accolades_1_Auth":"J.M. Coetzee","OtherText_Accolades_2":"No Friend but the Mountains deserves a place beside some of the world’s most famous prison narratives and testaments about living in a time of genocide, slavery, and state-sponsored oppression. It brings to mind various literary siblings: the ways in which The Diary of Anne Frank sketched the life of a young girl in the period leading up to her murder in the Holocaust; how Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl painted Harriet Jacobs’s life as a fugitive in the United States; the means by which One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn showed the daily oppression of a man living in a Soviet gulag; how The Autobiography of Malcolm X charted the movement of a man through prison life and into militancy as the most famous Black Muslim in America; and how Martin Luther King Jr. condemned arbitrary imprisonment and racial segregation in The Letter from Birmingham Jail . . . In a time of mounting hysteria and paranoia with regard to the arrival of migrants in developed countries, Behrouz Boochani reminds us that 68.5 million displaced people in the world today are the same as us. We could be them, tomorrow.","OtherText_Accolades_2_Auth":"Lawrence Hill","OtherText_Accolades_2_Src":"Lawrence Hill","OtherText_Back_cover_copy_0":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAN INTERNATIONAL SENSATION:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003eBoochani’s story went global when \u003cem\u003eNo Friend but the Mountains\u003c\/em\u003e won the Victorian Prize for Literature, Australia’s richest literary prize. The book won both the prize for nonfiction, as well as the overall winner for literature. The publisher had to make a special request that his work be eligible, despite the fact that he is essentially stateless. His win is a clear political statement of the Australian literary community’s objection to its government’s continued exile of Boochani and other refugees on Manus Island and Nauru Island, the two notorious immigration immigration detention facilities.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nAustralian sales are around 30K now (as of April 2019) but are projected to reach 50K before the end of the year. Rights have been sold in the following territories: Homeward in Taiwan, Add Editore in Italy, Random House in Germany, Picador UK, Hugo in France, Al Arabi in Egypt, Leya in Portugal and Jurgen Maas Uitgeverij in the Netherlands. In the coming months the agent expects to conclude deals in Japan, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Brazil, Lithuania, Sri Lanka, Denmark, Greece and Sweden. Film rights have been sold to Aurora Australia.\u003c\/li\u003e\r\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTIMELY SUBJECT MATTER — REFUGEES AND FREE PRESS UNDER ATTACK:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003eThe detainment of refugees is a hot-button issue. Boochani’s rare insider’s first-person account is beautifully and poetically told, and symbolic of the realities and circumstances tens of thousands of migrants are living in today. In addition, the reason for his flight from Iran — escaping persecution as a journalist — is more and more common with the increase of autocratic nations: https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2019\/feb\/03\/observer-view-on-assad-regime-murder-marie-colvin?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other\u003c\/li\u003e\r\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRECENT TALK OF REOPENING THE DETENTION CENTRES:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003eThe situation on Manus and Nauru Islands will continue to be in the news throughout the year. On February 13, 2019, the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, threatened to reopen the Manus Island detention centre after a medical evacuation bill — the new legislation sets out the conditions by which sick people on Nauru and Manus can be transferred to Australia for medical treatment. In the event there is medical advice from two or more treating doctors that a person needs to be evacuated, the home affairs minister has grounds for refusal.) passed in the Senate.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nHere is information on the medical evacuation bill:\u003cbr\u003e\r\nhttps:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2019\/feb\/13\/nine-facts-about-the-medical-evacuation-bill\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nAnd Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s response, upping the rhetoric on fearing migrants and refugees:\u003cbr\u003e\r\nhttps:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2019\/feb\/13\/coalition-to-reopen-christmas-island-detention-centre-as-senate-passes-refugee-transfer-bill\u003c\/li\u003e\r\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA PEN INTERNATIONAL WRITER:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003ePEN International has called on the Australian government for Boochani’s release. We will be approaching PEN International, PEN America, PEN U.K., and PEN Canada for support on this work, and through our efforts in publicizing the book we will also push for the author’s release.\u003c\/li\u003e\r\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDEMAND FOR IMMIGRANT STORIES:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003eNever before has there been such interest in immigrant and refugee stories, as demonstrated by the success of story collections by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Djamila Ibrahim, Irina Kovalyova, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Ayelet Tsabari.\u003c\/li\u003e\r\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eACCLAIMED COMPANION FILM:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003eBehrouz Boochani shot the feature-length documentary \u003cem\u003eChauka, Please Tell Us the Time\u003c\/em\u003e with Arash Kamali Sarvestani on a cellphone at the detention centre. It was acclaimed upon its release in 2018 and is available to watch on Vimeo: https:\/\/vimeo.com\/ondemand\/chauka.\u003c\/li\u003e\r\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFILM ADAPTATION IN THE WORKS:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003eSweetshop \u0026 Green, Aurora Films, and Hoodlum Entertainment are producing a major motion picture adaptation of \u003cem\u003eNo Friend but the Mountains\u003c\/em\u003e. Filming is set to begin in Australia in mid-2021.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nhttps:\/\/amp.theguardian.com\/world\/2020\/feb\/24\/behrouz-boochanis-book-no-friend-but-the-mountains-to-be-made-into-a-film\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nhttps:\/\/www.screendaily.com\/news\/behrouz-boochanis-asylum-seeker-drama-no-friend-but-the-mountains-heads-to-big-screen-exclusive\/5147441.article?fbclid=IwAR3jcsIJTHbmAHuDmpFZLYft6En7RBnuY9Ae9XCZ4uUbjjUbIj6tjuAlQeQ\u003c\/li\u003e\r\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBOOKSELLER INTEREST:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003e“\u003cem\u003eNo Friend but the Mountains\u003c\/em\u003e tells a story those in power do not want you to know. In writing this improbable memoir, Behrouz Boochani has given voice to migrants and refugees across the world and reminds us that the struggle for freedom is an ongoing one. I’m grateful this book exists.” — Stephen Sparks, Point Reyes Books\u003c\/li\u003e\r\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMedia Coverage on and by Behrouz Boochani\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nhttps:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/11\/14\/world\/australia\/behrouz-boochani-refugee.html\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nhttps:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2019\/nov\/14\/behrouz-boochani-free-voice-manus-island-refugees-new-zealand-australia\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nhttps:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/01\/31\/world\/australia\/behrouz-boochani-victorian-prize-manus-island.html\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nhttps:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2019\/feb\/01\/behrouz-boochani-on-literary-prize-words-still-have-the-power-to-challenge-inhumane-systems\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nhttps:\/\/pen-international.org\/news\/on-human-rights-day-take-action-for-journalist-behrouz-boochani-stranded-on-manus-island\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nhttps:\/\/www.npr.org\/books\/titles\/634881611\/no-friend-but-the-mountains-writing-from-manus-prison\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nhttps:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2018\/oct\/29\/i-returned-to-my-prison-on-manus-island-and-was-stunned-by-what-i-saw\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nhttps:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2018\/aug\/31\/australia-needs-a-moral-revolution\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nhttps:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2018\/jun\/20\/our-lives-are-have-become-weapons-in-a-rugged-political-contest\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nhttps:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/national\/australia-s-barbaric-policy-confronted-by-boochani-s-prison-memoir-20180821-p4zyt7.html\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nhttps:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/entertainment\/books\/no-friend-but-the-mountains-review-behrouz-boochanis-poetic-and-vital-memoir-20180801-h13fuu.html\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nhttps:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2018\/aug\/02\/behrouz-boochani-manus-island-and-the-book-written-one-text-at-a-time\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nhttps:\/\/www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au\/news\/politics\/2017\/12\/09\/letter-manus-island\/15127380005617\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nhttps:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/programmes\/talktojazeera\/inthefield\/2018\/02\/behrouz-boochani-living-limbo-manus-island-180208113527825.html\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\nhttps:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com.au\/author\/behrouz-boochani\/\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Description_for_R_0":"\u003cdiv \u003e\u003cstrong\u003eForeword by Richard Flanagan\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eNo Friend but the Mountains\u003c\/em\u003e is a book that can rightly take its place on the shelf of world prison literature, alongside such diverse works as Oscar Wilde’s \u003cem\u003eDe Profundis\u003c\/em\u003e, Antonio Gramsci’s \u003cem\u003ePrison Notebooks\u003c\/em\u003e, Ray Parkin’s \u003cem\u003eInto The Smother\u003c\/em\u003e, Wole Soyinka’s \u003cem\u003eThe Man Died\u003c\/em\u003e, and Martin Luther King Jr’s \u003cem\u003eLetter from Birmingham Jail\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWritten in Farsi by a young Kurdish poet, Behrouz Boochani, in situations of prolonged duress, torment, and suffering, the very existence of this book is a miracle of courage and creative tenacity. It was written not on paper or a computer, but thumbed on a phone and smuggled out of Manus Island in the form of thousands of text messages.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe should recognise the extent of Behrouz Boochani’s achievement by first acknowledging the difficulty of its creation, the near impossibility of its existence. Everything has been done by our government to dehumanise asylum seekers. Their names and their stories are kept from us. On Nauru and Manus Island, they live in a zoo of cruelty. Their lives are stripped of meaning.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese prisoners were all people who had been imprisoned without charge, without conviction, and without sentence. It is a particularly Kafkaesque fate that frequently has the cruellest effect — and one fully intended by their Australian jailers – of destroying hope.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThus the cry for freedom was transmuted into charring flesh as 23-year-old Omid Masoumali burnt his body in protest. The screams of 21-year-old Hodan Yasin as she too set herself alight.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is what we, Australia, have become.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe ignored begging of a woman on Nauru being raped.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA girl who sewed her lips together.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA child refugee who stitched a heart into their hand and didn’t know why.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBehrouz Boochani’s revolt took a different form. For the one thing that his jailers could not destroy in Behrouz Boochani was his belief in words: their beauty, their necessity, their possibility, their liberating power.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd so over the course of his imprisonment Behrouz Boochani began one of the more remarkable careers in Australian journalism: reporting about what was happening on Manus Island in the form of tweets, texts, phone videos, calls, and emails. In so doing he defied the Australian government which went to extreme lengths to prevent refugees’ stories being told, constantly seeking to deny journalists access to Manus Island and Nauru; going so far, for a time, as to legislate the draconian section 42 of the \u003cem\u003eAustralian Border Force Act\u003c\/em\u003e, which allowed for the jailing for two years of any doctors or social workers who bore public witness to children beaten or sexually abused, to acts of rape or cruelty.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHis words came to be read around the world, to be heard across the oceans and over the shrill cries of the legions of paid propagandists. With only the truth on his side and a phone in his hand, one imprisoned refugee alerted the world to Australia’s great crime.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBehrouz Boochani has now written a strange and terrible book chronicling his fate as a young man who has spent \u003cem\u003efive years\u003c\/em\u003e on Manus Island as a prisoner of the Australian government’s refugee policies — policies in which both our major parties have publicly competed in cruelty.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReading this book is difficult for any Australian. We pride ourselves on decency, kindness, generosity, and a fair go. None of these qualities are evident in Boochani’s account of hunger, squalor, beatings, suicide and murder.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI was painfully reminded in his descriptions of the Australian officials’ behaviour on Manus of my father’s descriptions of the Japanese commanders’ behaviour in the POW camps where he and fellow Australian POWs suffered so much.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat has become of us when it is we who now commit such crimes?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis account demands a reckoning. Someone must answer for these crimes. Because if they don’t, the one certainty that history teaches us is that the injustice of Manus Island and Nauru will one day be repeated on a larger, grander, and infinitely more tragic scale in Australia.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSomeone is responsible, and it is they, and not the innocent, to whose great suffering this book bears such disturbing witness, who should be in jail.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book, though, is something greater than just a \u003cem\u003eJ’accuse\u003c\/em\u003e. It is a profound victory for a young poet who showed us all how much words can still matter. Australia imprisoned his body, but his soul remained that of a free man. His words have now irrevocably become our words, and our history must henceforth account for his story.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI hope one day to welcome Behrouz Boochani to Australia as what I believe he has shown himself to be in these pages. A writer. A great Australian writer.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e Richard Flanagan, 2018\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv \u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*\u003cbr\/\u003e\u003cbr\/\u003eExcerpt from Chapter 5—\u003cbr\/\u003eA Christmas (Island) Tale \/ A Stateless Rohingya Boy Sent Away to Follow the Star of Exile\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\/\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eThey load us onto a bus. A few days ago in this exact area a bloody battle erupted, right in the place where we are now standing like submissive sheep. Lebanese refugees stood up to defy the guards who wanted to load them on board. But the guards smashed them and beat them down. They annihilated them, beat down on the arms and faces of a few of them. The guards dragged their battered and blood-soaked bodies over the concrete. They banished them to Manus Island. No matter how the refugees tried to resist, they couldn’t alter the political machinations of a government, a government that had just recently taken power, that had gone mad with the mere whiff of power.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe bus takes off. The path to the airport is surrounded by jungle. The conversation inside the vehicle is about the possibility of a particular scenario: that we will disembark at Darwin Airport and find out that all this talk is nothing but a ridiculous performance, the whole thing just a farce, that this whole thing doesn’t involve Manus in any way. However, talk of this kind comes from a place of weakness. At this point, faith in an occurrence that resembles a miracle comes across as ludicrous. We have to accept the reality. Within hours we will be descending on a remote island called Manus.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA few police vehicles follow our bus, and a few travel ahead. It is as though they are attending to our bus like a car transporting a president. We are so disempowered that we couldn’t do anything at all, even if we wanted to. Our baggy, cumbersome clothing weighs us down.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePandemonium breaks loose at the airport. Dozens of police officers stand by the plane in military mode. A few journalists have their cameras ready. All of them are waiting for us. The interpreters are there, also. That Kurdish woman has both her hands clasped behind her back. She just stands there, completely obedient. I can’t work it out; I can’t understand why they have to securitise that space. I am frightened by the journalists; I am frightened by the cameras they hold.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJournalists inquire into everything. They are always seeking out horrific events. They acquire fodder for their work from wars, from bad occurrences, from the misery of people. I remember when I used to work for a newspaper I would become agitated from listening to all the news about, for instance, a coup d’état, a revolution, or a terrorist attack. I would begin work with great fervour and scramble for that kind of research like a vulture; in turn, I fed the appetite of the people.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe journalists are staking out the situation like vultures: waiting until the wretched and miserable exit the vehicle; eager for us to come out as quickly as possible, to catch sight of the poor and helpless and launch on us —\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eClick, click \/\u003cbr\/\u003eWaiting to take their photos \/ Click, click.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e— and dispatch the images to the whole world. They are completely mesmerised by the government’s dirty politics and just follow along. The deal is that we have to be a warning, a lesson for people who want to seek protection in Australia.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Previous_review_q_0":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEW COPIES:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/li\u003e\r\n\u003cli\u003eBooklist\u003c\/li\u003e\r\n\u003cli\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/li\u003e\r\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","OtherText_Review_0":"A stateless Kurdish-Iranian asylum-seeker detained by the Australian government won the country’s highest-paying literary prize on Thursday. But he could not attend the festivities to accept the award. Behrouz Boochani, a writer, journalist and filmmaker who has been held in offshore detention on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea for more than five years, won the 2019 Victorian Prize for Literature for his book, No Friend but the Mountains . . . Typically, only Australian citizens or permanent residents are eligible for the award. But an exception was made in Mr. Boochani’s case because judges considered his story an Australia story, said Michael Williams, the director of the Wheeler Center, a literary institution that administers the award on behalf of the state government. ‘We canvassed the critical and broader literary reception of the book, and we made our decision on that basis,’ Mr. Williams said. ‘This is an extraordinary literary work that is an indelible contribution to Australian publishing and storytelling.","OtherText_Review_0_Src":"New York Times","OtherText_Review_1":"Boochani tapped his book out in text messages to his friend Omid Tofighian, who translated the book from Persian. Before the book was published, Boochani filmed a movie, Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time, which was shot in secret, on his cell phone. He has written many articles and essays for Australian and international media. He now holds a non-resident appointment at the University of Sydney. In a different place, or at a different time, these professional recognitions, to say nothing of his many literary awards, would have signalled that Boochani is integrated into Australian society, and valued by it. But Australia’s extreme anti-immigrant turn, which preceded that of the United States by several years, has created a stark disjuncture between what the culture values and what the state allows. In an era when simply being a person in need of international protection makes a man a criminal, he cannot live in the society that has showered him with praise.","OtherText_Review_1_Auth":"Masha Gessen","OtherText_Review_1_Src":"The New Yorker","OtherText_Review_2":"No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison is an extraordinary insight into the life of several hundred men held in offshore prisons under the Australian policy of immigration detention.","OtherText_Review_2_Src":"Los Angeles Review of Books","OtherText_Review_3":"The winner of Australia’s richest literary prize did not attend the ceremony. His absence was not by choice. Behrouz Boochani, whose debut book won both the $25,000 non-fiction prize at the Victorian premier’s literary awards and the $100,000 Victorian prize for literature on Thursday night, is not allowed into Australia. The Kurdish Iranian writer is an asylum seeker who has been kept in purgatory on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea for almost six years, first behind the wire of the Australian offshore detention centre, and then in alternative accommodation on the island. Now his book No Friend but the Mountains — composed one text message at a time from within the detention centre — has been recognized by a government from the same country that denied him access and locked him up.","OtherText_Review_3_Src":"Guardian","OtherText_Review_4":"As war, crime, famine, and civil disruption result in growing numbers of asylum seekers, Boochani’s deeply disturbing memoir introduces readers to hard realities and reveals the wounded hearts of captors and prisoners alike.","OtherText_Review_4_Src":"Foreword Reviews","OtherText_ShortDescription_0":"Kurdish-Iranian journalist and refugee Behrouz Boochani’s account of his detainment on Australia’s notorious Manus Island prison.","PrizeCodeText_0":"Winner","PrizeCodeText_1":"Winner","PrizeCodeText_2":"Winner","PrizeCodeText_3":"Winner","PrizeCodeText_4":"Winner","PrizeCodeText_5":"Nominated","PrizeCodeText_6":"Winner","PrizeCodeText_7":"Commended","PrizeCode_0":"01","PrizeCode_1":"01","PrizeCode_2":"01","PrizeCode_3":"01","PrizeCode_4":"01","PrizeCode_5":"07","PrizeCode_6":"01","PrizeCode_7":"03","PrizeName_0":"Victorian Prize for Literature","PrizeName_1":"Victorian Premier’s Prize for Nonfiction","PrizeName_2":"NSW Premier’s Literary Award: Special Award","PrizeName_3":"ABIA General Non-Fiction Book of the Year","PrizeName_4":"State Library New South Wales National Biography Award","PrizeName_5":"Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award: Autobiography \u0026amp; Memoir","PrizeName_6":"Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award: Editor’s Choice (Nonfiction)","PrizeName_7":"A New Statesman Book of the Year","ProductFormDescription":"trade paperback","PublicationDate":"2019-02-11","Publisher":"House of Anansi Press Inc","ShortDescription":"Kurdish-Iranian journalist and refugee Behrouz Boochani’s account of his detainment on Australia’s notorious Manus Island prison.","Subtitle":"Writing from Manus Prison","Width":"6","WidthCode":"in"}