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No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison
Winner of The Victorian Prize for Literature, and the Prize for Non-Fiction, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2019
Where have I come from? From the land of rivers, the land of waterfalls, the land of ancient chants, the land of mountains...
In 2013, Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani was illegally detained on Manus Island. He has been there ever since.
People would run to the mountains to escape the warplanes and found asylum within their chestnut forests...
This book is the result. Laboriously tapped out on a mobile phone and translated from the Farsi. It is a voice of witness, an act of survival. A lyric first-hand account. A cry of resistance. A vivid portrait through five years of incarceration and exile.
Do Kurds have any friends other than the mountains?
Where have I come from? From the land of rivers, the land of waterfalls, the land of ancient chants, the land of mountains...
In 2013, Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani was illegally detained on Manus Island. He has been there ever since.
People would run to the mountains to escape the warplanes and found asylum within their chestnut forests...
This book is the result. Laboriously tapped out on a mobile phone and translated from the Farsi. It is a voice of witness, an act of survival. A lyric first-hand account. A cry of resistance. A vivid portrait through five years of incarceration and exile.
Do Kurds have any friends other than the mountains?
416 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2018
About the author
Behrouz Boochani
7 books227 followersBehrouz Boochani (Persian: بهروز بوچانی) holds a Masters degree in political geography and geopolitics. He is a Kurdish-Iranian journalist, scholar, cultural advocate, writer and filmmaker, founder of the Kurdish language magazine Weya, an Honorary Member of PEN International. In 2013, he fled Iran and became a political prisoner of the Australian Government incarcerated in the Manus Regional Processing Centre (Papua New Guinea).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,401 reviews
August 14, 2018
Begin mandatory reading. End mandatory detention.
August 14, 2018
For three days I have been locked inside a hell that I can still barely fathom, one that I experienced on the page, but that Behrouz Boochani and his fellow prisoners on Manus Island have lived for over five years. What's worse was the knowledge that we have all been made accomplice to their suffering.
No Friend But The Mountains is a masterpiece of prisoner literature, up there with Solzhenitsyn and Levi (and no, I'm not going the Godwin's Law route, but I had visceral shivers reading some of the familiar conditions in that hellhole). Moreover, it is an instant Australian classic. Probably the most important book published here this century. The prose is stunning, the poetry sublime. It is dignified and courageous, honest and excoriating. And yes, it is heartbreaking.
I urge everyone to read it, to know what is happening in our names, but also to experience a book like nothing you are ever likely to have read before. And remember, for many of us, Behrouz was our grandparents, or our parents. Fleeing persecution, yearning for freedom in a land fabled for its warmth and kindness. In this time of fear and division, let us all work instead towards a more compassionate, welcoming Australia.
No Friend But The Mountains is a masterpiece of prisoner literature, up there with Solzhenitsyn and Levi (and no, I'm not going the Godwin's Law route, but I had visceral shivers reading some of the familiar conditions in that hellhole). Moreover, it is an instant Australian classic. Probably the most important book published here this century. The prose is stunning, the poetry sublime. It is dignified and courageous, honest and excoriating. And yes, it is heartbreaking.
I urge everyone to read it, to know what is happening in our names, but also to experience a book like nothing you are ever likely to have read before. And remember, for many of us, Behrouz was our grandparents, or our parents. Fleeing persecution, yearning for freedom in a land fabled for its warmth and kindness. In this time of fear and division, let us all work instead towards a more compassionate, welcoming Australia.
June 1, 2019
Winner of The Victorian Prize for Literature, and the Prize for Non-Fiction, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2019
Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani fled persecution in Iran in 2013. He attempted to make his way to Australia by boat but was instead captured and imprisoned on Manus Island in hellish conditions for five years. This book was tapped out in thousands of text messages in Farsi, and translated into English by Omid Tofighian.
Any review here is bound to be totally inadequate. How do you put a star rating on someone’s suffering? All I can do is try to give potential readers a general idea of what to expect from this book.
Boochani chooses to present his account in a literary, poetic and idiosyncratic style. It’s a departure from the straightforward reporting of his journalism. The style is often feverish and sometimes frustrating when there are factual gaps – but any reader can resolve those gaps with some additional online research. Boochani more than succeeds in his aim to not just report the events but to convey the human experience and the depths of his personal torment. His narrative voice is bitter and angry (righteously so) and it is at times overwhelming to be inside his head.
Numerous sections throughout have been rendered as verse, which interestingly, appears to be a choice by the translator in order to retain the poetic resonance of the original Farsi. Some of these verse sections make striking poems in their own right, like this one:
No Friend But the Mountains is an astonishing first-hand account of the national disgrace that is Australia’s recent treatment of asylum seekers on Christmas Island, Manus Island and Nauru. A powerful, eye-opening and unforgettable book.
Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani fled persecution in Iran in 2013. He attempted to make his way to Australia by boat but was instead captured and imprisoned on Manus Island in hellish conditions for five years. This book was tapped out in thousands of text messages in Farsi, and translated into English by Omid Tofighian.
Any review here is bound to be totally inadequate. How do you put a star rating on someone’s suffering? All I can do is try to give potential readers a general idea of what to expect from this book.
“Can it be that I sought asylum in Australia only to be exiled to a place I know nothing about? And are they forcing me to live here without any other options? I am prepared to be put on a boat back to Indonesia; I mean, the same place I embarked from. But I can’t find any answers to these questions.
Clearly, they are taking us hostage. We are hostages – we are being made examples to strike fear into others, to scare people so they won’t come to Australia.
What do other people’s plans to come to Australia have to do with me? Why do I have to be punished for what others might do?”
Boochani chooses to present his account in a literary, poetic and idiosyncratic style. It’s a departure from the straightforward reporting of his journalism. The style is often feverish and sometimes frustrating when there are factual gaps – but any reader can resolve those gaps with some additional online research. Boochani more than succeeds in his aim to not just report the events but to convey the human experience and the depths of his personal torment. His narrative voice is bitter and angry (righteously so) and it is at times overwhelming to be inside his head.
Numerous sections throughout have been rendered as verse, which interestingly, appears to be a choice by the translator in order to retain the poetic resonance of the original Farsi. Some of these verse sections make striking poems in their own right, like this one:
When humans struggle over territory /
It always reeks of violence and bloodshed /
Even if the conflict is over a location the size of one body /
On a small boat /
And only for a period of two days.
No Friend But the Mountains is an astonishing first-hand account of the national disgrace that is Australia’s recent treatment of asylum seekers on Christmas Island, Manus Island and Nauru. A powerful, eye-opening and unforgettable book.
September 12, 2023
Richard Flanagan supplied a forward to this personal account of the contentious failure in off-shore processing and detention of asylum seekers. It says it all:
“Reading 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.”
“Reading 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.”
February 29, 2020
خودسانسوری به سبک یک آنارشیست فراری
بهروز بوچانی در این کتاب تصویری از یک روشنفکر به معنی منفی را به نمایش گذاشته کسانی که غیر از خودشان را نمیبینند و ریشه همه مشکلات را در جایی دیگر جستجو میکنند و همه مقصرند الا خودشان! کسی که همه را نماد رذالت و پلشتی معرفی میکند و خودش یا منزه است از صفات دیگران یا اغلب ساکت است و معلوم نیست در رویدادی که حرفش میرود کجای معرکه ایستاده است. مگر میشود کلا حرف نزد و سکوت کرد و تماشا کرد؟ آن هم جایی که افراد جز حرف زدن راه دیگری برای تخلیه خود ندارند، از قدیم گفتن حرف بادبزن جگر است، ولی بهروز بوچانی حرف زدن را هم شماتت میکند و ترجیح میدهد جز با نگاه با هیچکس ارتباط کلامی برقرار نکند، باور کردنی نیست! او روشنفکری است که از کشورش با تمام ظلمها گریخته و روشن نیست چرا بریده و فرار را بر قرار ترجیح داده و حالا در کشور ثانی هم مشابه قبل است، معترض است ولی برای خودش و در اعتراضها ردی از او دیده نمیشود!
او که گفته از دست یک دیکتاتوری مذهبی فرار کرده، در استرالیا هم باز به نظم حاکم معترض است، او بیشتر به آنارشیستها شباهت دارد، چون آنجا هم به قوانین معترض است، و بر این باور که قوانین سفت و سخت برای اذیت کردن زندانیها وضع شده است و این را ظالمانه میداند، ولی از خودش نمیپرسد، سزای کسی که نظم جاری در کشوری را برهم زده چیست؟
کتاب هیچ دوستی به جز کوهستان حرف خاصی نداشت و حدیث نفس یک مهاجر بود، بدون اینکه خیلی واضح و صریح به دلایل مهاجرتش اشاره کند و توصیفها حجم زیادی را به خود اختصاص داده بودند. در هیچجایی از کتاب روشن نمیشود که چگونه این کلمات را نوشته، چون ادعا شده که این کتاب بخش بخش در واتس آپ نوشته و ارسال شده در حالی که در زندانی که شرحش در کتاب میرود، تلفن هم به سختی میشود حرف زد چون صفهای طویل و نوبتهای دورهای دارد و حتی خودکار و کاغذ هم ممنوع است ولی بوچانی گفته با واتس آپ این کتاب را نوشته است!
همانطور که گفتم بوچانی شخصیت عجیبی است، او به دیکتاتوری مذهبی جمهوری اسلامی ایران معترض است ولی کتابش را برای انتشار به ناشر ایرانی سپرده و برای اینکه منتشر شود ظاهرا خودش دست به جرح و تعدیل آن زده و زهر کتابش را گرفته تا از سد ممیزی راحت رد شود، این همان روشنفکر غرغرویی است که قرار است جلودار حرکات اجتماعی باشد و احتمالا راه را نشان دهد.
در مجموع با نخواندن کتاب چیزی از دست نمیدهید به خصوص که برای دویست و چهل و پنج صفحه باید ناقابل چهل و سه هزار تومان هم پرداخت کنید
بهروز بوچانی در این کتاب تصویری از یک روشنفکر به معنی منفی را به نمایش گذاشته کسانی که غیر از خودشان را نمیبینند و ریشه همه مشکلات را در جایی دیگر جستجو میکنند و همه مقصرند الا خودشان! کسی که همه را نماد رذالت و پلشتی معرفی میکند و خودش یا منزه است از صفات دیگران یا اغلب ساکت است و معلوم نیست در رویدادی که حرفش میرود کجای معرکه ایستاده است. مگر میشود کلا حرف نزد و سکوت کرد و تماشا کرد؟ آن هم جایی که افراد جز حرف زدن راه دیگری برای تخلیه خود ندارند، از قدیم گفتن حرف بادبزن جگر است، ولی بهروز بوچانی حرف زدن را هم شماتت میکند و ترجیح میدهد جز با نگاه با هیچکس ارتباط کلامی برقرار نکند، باور کردنی نیست! او روشنفکری است که از کشورش با تمام ظلمها گریخته و روشن نیست چرا بریده و فرار را بر قرار ترجیح داده و حالا در کشور ثانی هم مشابه قبل است، معترض است ولی برای خودش و در اعتراضها ردی از او دیده نمیشود!
او که گفته از دست یک دیکتاتوری مذهبی فرار کرده، در استرالیا هم باز به نظم حاکم معترض است، او بیشتر به آنارشیستها شباهت دارد، چون آنجا هم به قوانین معترض است، و بر این باور که قوانین سفت و سخت برای اذیت کردن زندانیها وضع شده است و این را ظالمانه میداند، ولی از خودش نمیپرسد، سزای کسی که نظم جاری در کشوری را برهم زده چیست؟
کتاب هیچ دوستی به جز کوهستان حرف خاصی نداشت و حدیث نفس یک مهاجر بود، بدون اینکه خیلی واضح و صریح به دلایل مهاجرتش اشاره کند و توصیفها حجم زیادی را به خود اختصاص داده بودند. در هیچجایی از کتاب روشن نمیشود که چگونه این کلمات را نوشته، چون ادعا شده که این کتاب بخش بخش در واتس آپ نوشته و ارسال شده در حالی که در زندانی که شرحش در کتاب میرود، تلفن هم به سختی میشود حرف زد چون صفهای طویل و نوبتهای دورهای دارد و حتی خودکار و کاغذ هم ممنوع است ولی بوچانی گفته با واتس آپ این کتاب را نوشته است!
همانطور که گفتم بوچانی شخصیت عجیبی است، او به دیکتاتوری مذهبی جمهوری اسلامی ایران معترض است ولی کتابش را برای انتشار به ناشر ایرانی سپرده و برای اینکه منتشر شود ظاهرا خودش دست به جرح و تعدیل آن زده و زهر کتابش را گرفته تا از سد ممیزی راحت رد شود، این همان روشنفکر غرغرویی است که قرار است جلودار حرکات اجتماعی باشد و احتمالا راه را نشان دهد.
در مجموع با نخواندن کتاب چیزی از دست نمیدهید به خصوص که برای دویست و چهل و پنج صفحه باید ناقابل چهل و سه هزار تومان هم پرداخت کنید
July 24, 2020
UPDATE JULY 2020 Boochani has just been given formal refugee status in New Zealand and granted a visa to live there!
5★
“My mother always sighed and would say: ‘My boy, you came into this world in a time we called the flee and flight years.’”
In his poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote of the disastrous ride of the 600 into the Valley of Death: “Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them volleyed and thundered; Stormed at with shot and shell. . . ”
But for the Kurds, living in Kurdistan, (now mostly part of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria), they weren’t riding into the Valley of Death. They were being squeezed up into the hills during the war between Iran and Iraq – the flee and flight years. Boochani is an Iranian Kurd.
“A time when people would run to the mountains from fear of the warplanes. Everything they had and could carry they took with them. They found asylum within chestnut oak forests. Do the Kurds have any friends other than the mountains? Horrified mothers . . . mothers wrapped their children within the instincts of motherhood and escaped to the mountains.”
Map of Kurdish areas
I am also horrified. The first part of the book nearly finished me, where he describes why he needed to flee Indonesia (after he escaped that far) and then why he set off to sea for Australia a second time in 2013. Some choice:
“I am like a soldier caught between crossing a minefield or being a prisoner of war.”
He chooses the minefield.
“No-one utters a sound. The Sri Lankan baby silently clings to its mother’s breast – gazing but not feeding. The slightest sound or cry could ruin everything. Three months of wandering displaced and hungry in Jakarta and Kendari. Everything depends on silence. This final phase. On the beach.
. . .
In the midst of the fracas, as the women and children try to settle into their hard and uncomfortable positions, the boat takes off; like a heavily pregnant mare cantering carefully across a dark prairie of water. We are on our way to Australia.”
Families, babies, shouting, screaming, crying, going crazy. Storm, waves, sinking boat, only for them to end up exhausted in Australia’s “care” at the so-called “processing” centres on Manus Island (men only) or Nauru.
Map showing Indonesia, PNG, and Australia. Note Christmas Island, Manus Island, Nauru.
Boochani writes of his years on Manus, during which the numbers increased, the crowding worsened, the food worsened or disappeared, the toilets were increasingly blocked, the ankle-deep pools of sewage to wade through around the toilet/shower blocks deepened, the self-harm worsened, and the medical attention was almost non-existent. A paracetamol or a bottle of warm water was prescribed for everything.
I will make no attempt to summarise his thoughts, but I will quote another passage that I think describes the result of such inhumane treatment.
“My earliest childhood memories are of warplanes ruthlessly raiding the skies. . . . However, this was considered to be the most painless and most gracious form of death. Even for me, it seems to be the most peaceful way to die, a scenario where one is totally annihilated in an instant.”
Boom! It would be all over. Like dying in your sleep – but not really.
The Kurds are often considered stateless people, but there is no question about the Rohingya. I can understand how a bomb could seem appealing.
It is the Australians who come off as the bad guys, and I mean bad, seriously bad. They monitor every action and crack down hard if there’s been a breach of the rules. And beat, and torture, but I'll skip that. Here’s an example you wouldn't expect, but it's just one of many.
Every inmate was allowed 200mls of milk – if milk happened to be offered that day. The chef poured it really, really carefully, and if it weren’t quite full would add a few drops. But, if the chef had poured too much, the cup was set aside and a new one poured. Set aside?
“There is a stupidity in this practice, and by the end of breakfast the few cups of milk that are filled a little over halfway accumulate at the side of the counter. At the end of the shift the cook throws out all the spoiled milk.”
WHAT?? Unbelievably petty and demoralising. Just like the constant queuing and the sudden changing of schedules for phone time, etc. Anything that can pull the rug out from under you will be pulled. Boochani calls it the Kyriarchal System, a term borrowed from feminism to describe a social system of oppression, domination, and submission. Sounds about right to me.
Boochani is a journalist and poet. Each chapter is introduced with some poetry, and there are many poetic passages and turns of phrase. It is beyond me how he has kept his soul intact and his imagination alive, but I suspect it’s poetry that has saved him.
He would lean back on a chair and prop his feet up on the fence and imagine.
“Every time the Manusian moon appears, it is adorned with another rare and differently coloured halo. These auras are a spectacular gift, combining in the equatorial sky with a sea of eternal clouds.”
Some poetry introduces chapters or thoughts and is written in italics with slash/stroke marks between the phrases. Here's a different take on the moon when it goes into hiding.
“The darkness is increasingly encroaching / The moon hides itself behind the dark skin of the night / In the grip of hopelessness I also experience joy / See, with the disappearance of the moon I feel more secure / Sometimes ignorance of the truth brings tranquillity.”
I don’t think it’s intended to mean this, but that last line is how Australians manage to live with what our Government is doing in spite of our obligation to refugees. Ignorance brings tranquillity.
Wonderfully written and sent by text message to his dedicated and talented translator, Omid Tofighian, I can only agree with what one of my favourite authors has said:
“I 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.”
Richard Flanagan, 2018
Richard Flanagan wrote the Booker Prize-winning The Narrow Road to the Deep North, and I must say that I agree with his comments in the introduction to this that conditions on Manus are reminiscent of those on the Burma Railway. What on earth is our excuse?
On a personal note, the references to the moon reminded me of the wonderful little song, "Somewhere Out There" from the animated feature “An American Tail”. It reminds me that we are all part of the same world, and even when separated by distance and circumstances, we are always connected somehow to those we care about.
I hope you’ll forgive me if this seems frivolous. It isn’t meant to be. (The story is about a Russian mouse family going to America, and Feival and Tanya Mousekewitz sing to the moon. ) Here’s a link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smc5F...
P.S. Boochani has won $125,000 in Australian literary awards but can't come to collect it.
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/...
A fellow reader has given me a link to a good interview with the author.
https://pen.org/the-pen-ten-with-behr...
(Read Feb 2019)
5★
“My mother always sighed and would say: ‘My boy, you came into this world in a time we called the flee and flight years.’”
In his poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote of the disastrous ride of the 600 into the Valley of Death: “Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them volleyed and thundered; Stormed at with shot and shell. . . ”
But for the Kurds, living in Kurdistan, (now mostly part of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria), they weren’t riding into the Valley of Death. They were being squeezed up into the hills during the war between Iran and Iraq – the flee and flight years. Boochani is an Iranian Kurd.
“A time when people would run to the mountains from fear of the warplanes. Everything they had and could carry they took with them. They found asylum within chestnut oak forests. Do the Kurds have any friends other than the mountains? Horrified mothers . . . mothers wrapped their children within the instincts of motherhood and escaped to the mountains.”
Map of Kurdish areas
I am also horrified. The first part of the book nearly finished me, where he describes why he needed to flee Indonesia (after he escaped that far) and then why he set off to sea for Australia a second time in 2013. Some choice:
“I am like a soldier caught between crossing a minefield or being a prisoner of war.”
He chooses the minefield.
“No-one utters a sound. The Sri Lankan baby silently clings to its mother’s breast – gazing but not feeding. The slightest sound or cry could ruin everything. Three months of wandering displaced and hungry in Jakarta and Kendari. Everything depends on silence. This final phase. On the beach.
. . .
In the midst of the fracas, as the women and children try to settle into their hard and uncomfortable positions, the boat takes off; like a heavily pregnant mare cantering carefully across a dark prairie of water. We are on our way to Australia.”
Families, babies, shouting, screaming, crying, going crazy. Storm, waves, sinking boat, only for them to end up exhausted in Australia’s “care” at the so-called “processing” centres on Manus Island (men only) or Nauru.
Map showing Indonesia, PNG, and Australia. Note Christmas Island, Manus Island, Nauru.
Boochani writes of his years on Manus, during which the numbers increased, the crowding worsened, the food worsened or disappeared, the toilets were increasingly blocked, the ankle-deep pools of sewage to wade through around the toilet/shower blocks deepened, the self-harm worsened, and the medical attention was almost non-existent. A paracetamol or a bottle of warm water was prescribed for everything.
I will make no attempt to summarise his thoughts, but I will quote another passage that I think describes the result of such inhumane treatment.
“My earliest childhood memories are of warplanes ruthlessly raiding the skies. . . . However, this was considered to be the most painless and most gracious form of death. Even for me, it seems to be the most peaceful way to die, a scenario where one is totally annihilated in an instant.”
Boom! It would be all over. Like dying in your sleep – but not really.
The Kurds are often considered stateless people, but there is no question about the Rohingya. I can understand how a bomb could seem appealing.
It is the Australians who come off as the bad guys, and I mean bad, seriously bad. They monitor every action and crack down hard if there’s been a breach of the rules. And beat, and torture, but I'll skip that. Here’s an example you wouldn't expect, but it's just one of many.
Every inmate was allowed 200mls of milk – if milk happened to be offered that day. The chef poured it really, really carefully, and if it weren’t quite full would add a few drops. But, if the chef had poured too much, the cup was set aside and a new one poured. Set aside?
“There is a stupidity in this practice, and by the end of breakfast the few cups of milk that are filled a little over halfway accumulate at the side of the counter. At the end of the shift the cook throws out all the spoiled milk.”
WHAT?? Unbelievably petty and demoralising. Just like the constant queuing and the sudden changing of schedules for phone time, etc. Anything that can pull the rug out from under you will be pulled. Boochani calls it the Kyriarchal System, a term borrowed from feminism to describe a social system of oppression, domination, and submission. Sounds about right to me.
Boochani is a journalist and poet. Each chapter is introduced with some poetry, and there are many poetic passages and turns of phrase. It is beyond me how he has kept his soul intact and his imagination alive, but I suspect it’s poetry that has saved him.
He would lean back on a chair and prop his feet up on the fence and imagine.
“Every time the Manusian moon appears, it is adorned with another rare and differently coloured halo. These auras are a spectacular gift, combining in the equatorial sky with a sea of eternal clouds.”
Some poetry introduces chapters or thoughts and is written in italics with slash/stroke marks between the phrases. Here's a different take on the moon when it goes into hiding.
“The darkness is increasingly encroaching / The moon hides itself behind the dark skin of the night / In the grip of hopelessness I also experience joy / See, with the disappearance of the moon I feel more secure / Sometimes ignorance of the truth brings tranquillity.”
I don’t think it’s intended to mean this, but that last line is how Australians manage to live with what our Government is doing in spite of our obligation to refugees. Ignorance brings tranquillity.
Wonderfully written and sent by text message to his dedicated and talented translator, Omid Tofighian, I can only agree with what one of my favourite authors has said:
“I 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.”
Richard Flanagan, 2018
Richard Flanagan wrote the Booker Prize-winning The Narrow Road to the Deep North, and I must say that I agree with his comments in the introduction to this that conditions on Manus are reminiscent of those on the Burma Railway. What on earth is our excuse?
On a personal note, the references to the moon reminded me of the wonderful little song, "Somewhere Out There" from the animated feature “An American Tail”. It reminds me that we are all part of the same world, and even when separated by distance and circumstances, we are always connected somehow to those we care about.
I hope you’ll forgive me if this seems frivolous. It isn’t meant to be. (The story is about a Russian mouse family going to America, and Feival and Tanya Mousekewitz sing to the moon. ) Here’s a link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smc5F...
P.S. Boochani has won $125,000 in Australian literary awards but can't come to collect it.
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/...
A fellow reader has given me a link to a good interview with the author.
https://pen.org/the-pen-ten-with-behr...
(Read Feb 2019)
March 8, 2020
اگر قدرت تخیل بالایی دارید، این کتاب رو نخونید چون از تجسم لحظه لحظهش زجر خواهید کشید
May 5, 2020
وقتي داشتم كتابو ميخوندم يه سري نكات به ذهنم رسيد كه ميخوام بگم اونا رو.
چرا بايد كشوري كه كلي ذخاير نفتي داره و ثروتمنده مردمش در فقر زندگي كنن و در جوامع بين المللي هيچ ارزشي نداشته باشند؟
واقعا ناراحت كنندست هرساله كلي از ايران ميرن و جاهاي ديگه پناهنده ميشن وكلي مشكلات را بايد تحمل كنند.مثلا هيچوقت نديديم يه كانادايي رنج و مشكلاتي كه فرد ايراني داره متحمل بشه.
خيليا ميگن خب چرا يه ادم پناهنده بشه ميتونه مهاجرت قانوني داشته باشه،مگه چند درصد جامعه افراد نخبه هستند كه بتونن تحصيلي برن حال جداي از اينكه بعضيا نخبه هستن و بخاطر مشكلات سياسي ميرن از ايران.اين مشكلات سياسي جاي تامل داره؛چرا بايد ادمها براي ابراز عقايدشون مورد تعقيب قرار بگيرن؟
و خب به استراليا ميرسيم،چه چيزي اين حق را به استراليايي ميده كه باعث رنج اين ادمها بشن؟
نبايد يادمون بره استراليايي ها مهاجران بودند البته بيشتر دقيق بگم استراليا يجورايي تبعيد گاه زنداني هاي انگلستان بود،چرا يه سري افراد بايد خودشونو برتر از بقيه بدونن؟
خب در مورد كتاب بخوام بگم؛خيلي رو مخ بود😐با توصيفاتش اصلا نتونستم ارتباط برقرار كنم،و اينكه كلي سانسور داشت.
حالا راجع به اين سانسورها بياييد حرف بزنيم،چرا يه عده بايد براي من تصميم بگيرن چي بخونم چي نخونم؟!
باز شايد يه سري بگن خب انگليسي بخون،چرا من نبايد به زباني كه تو مدرسه خوندم بتونم كتاب بخونم؟!
چرا بايد كشوري كه كلي ذخاير نفتي داره و ثروتمنده مردمش در فقر زندگي كنن و در جوامع بين المللي هيچ ارزشي نداشته باشند؟
واقعا ناراحت كنندست هرساله كلي از ايران ميرن و جاهاي ديگه پناهنده ميشن وكلي مشكلات را بايد تحمل كنند.مثلا هيچوقت نديديم يه كانادايي رنج و مشكلاتي كه فرد ايراني داره متحمل بشه.
خيليا ميگن خب چرا يه ادم پناهنده بشه ميتونه مهاجرت قانوني داشته باشه،مگه چند درصد جامعه افراد نخبه هستند كه بتونن تحصيلي برن حال جداي از اينكه بعضيا نخبه هستن و بخاطر مشكلات سياسي ميرن از ايران.اين مشكلات سياسي جاي تامل داره؛چرا بايد ادمها براي ابراز عقايدشون مورد تعقيب قرار بگيرن؟
و خب به استراليا ميرسيم،چه چيزي اين حق را به استراليايي ميده كه باعث رنج اين ادمها بشن؟
نبايد يادمون بره استراليايي ها مهاجران بودند البته بيشتر دقيق بگم استراليا يجورايي تبعيد گاه زنداني هاي انگلستان بود،چرا يه سري افراد بايد خودشونو برتر از بقيه بدونن؟
خب در مورد كتاب بخوام بگم؛خيلي رو مخ بود😐با توصيفاتش اصلا نتونستم ارتباط برقرار كنم،و اينكه كلي سانسور داشت.
حالا راجع به اين سانسورها بياييد حرف بزنيم،چرا يه عده بايد براي من تصميم بگيرن چي بخونم چي نخونم؟!
باز شايد يه سري بگن خب انگليسي بخون،چرا من نبايد به زباني كه تو مدرسه خوندم بتونم كتاب بخونم؟!
February 20, 2020
وقتی دیدم منتشر شد، وسط یه کتاب دیگه بودم. رها کردم و خریدم و دو روز هم طول کشید تا خواندم.
تکان دهنده، تلخ، دقیق با قلمی فوق العاده و رک و رو راست بهترین کلماتیست که برای توصیف آنچه خواندم می توانم پیدا کنم.
روایت مردی که به دل اقیانوس میزند تا به سرزمین رویاهای خویش برسد و عجب سختیهای سختی را پشت سر میگذارد. روایت خودش و همقطارانش که همه مثل او خوش شانس نیستند و جا به جا و گاه به گاه در دل امواج مصیبت و بدبختی و ظلم گم میشوند.
از سوی دیگر توصیف شرایط زندان در مانوس بسیار عالی بود. مانوس زندانی مدرن است. ما با چیزی مثل گولاگ ماگادان یا آشویتس یا برگن بلسن طرف نیستیم، بلکه با نسخهی تکامل یافتهتر و بسیار کثیفتر مواجه میشویم.
نگهبانان از سر بیکاری نمیکشند صبر میکنند تا در روز اضطرار لبخند بزنند و بگویند متاسف هستند. فشار روانی ای را تحمیل میکنند تا ذره ذره انسانها را خورد کنند یا به قول آقای بوچانی ببلعند و هضم کنند.
قطعا چنین جاهایی را مشتی انسان رذل و ترسو و کثیف میسازند و برایش نقشه میکشند. همهی مدت مطالعه به این فکر میکردم که چه میشود که انسانی به جایی برسد تا بخواهد چنین کارهایی را به عنوان شغل خود انتخاب کند و از این راه امرار معاش کند؟ به پزشکان درمانگاه هم خیلی فکر کردم.
ای کاش دست آخر چند صفحه ای از پس از مانوس هم داشت و اینکه بدانیم چه شد که بوچانی از آنجا درآمد، چطور نوشت، چطور و چقدر دنبال ناشر گشت و حس و حالش روزی که جایزه گرفت و مورد تمجید منتقدین ادبی واقع شد چه بود. کتاب همانقدر که ناگهانی شروع شد، صاعقه وار هم به پایان رسید.
در کل کتاب خوبی ست با قلمی که خوب بلد است با کلمات جادو کند.
تکان دهنده، تلخ، دقیق با قلمی فوق العاده و رک و رو راست بهترین کلماتیست که برای توصیف آنچه خواندم می توانم پیدا کنم.
روایت مردی که به دل اقیانوس میزند تا به سرزمین رویاهای خویش برسد و عجب سختیهای سختی را پشت سر میگذارد. روایت خودش و همقطارانش که همه مثل او خوش شانس نیستند و جا به جا و گاه به گاه در دل امواج مصیبت و بدبختی و ظلم گم میشوند.
از سوی دیگر توصیف شرایط زندان در مانوس بسیار عالی بود. مانوس زندانی مدرن است. ما با چیزی مثل گولاگ ماگادان یا آشویتس یا برگن بلسن طرف نیستیم، بلکه با نسخهی تکامل یافتهتر و بسیار کثیفتر مواجه میشویم.
نگهبانان از سر بیکاری نمیکشند صبر میکنند تا در روز اضطرار لبخند بزنند و بگویند متاسف هستند. فشار روانی ای را تحمیل میکنند تا ذره ذره انسانها را خورد کنند یا به قول آقای بوچانی ببلعند و هضم کنند.
قطعا چنین جاهایی را مشتی انسان رذل و ترسو و کثیف میسازند و برایش نقشه میکشند. همهی مدت مطالعه به این فکر میکردم که چه میشود که انسانی به جایی برسد تا بخواهد چنین کارهایی را به عنوان شغل خود انتخاب کند و از این راه امرار معاش کند؟ به پزشکان درمانگاه هم خیلی فکر کردم.
ای کاش دست آخر چند صفحه ای از پس از مانوس هم داشت و اینکه بدانیم چه شد که بوچانی از آنجا درآمد، چطور نوشت، چطور و چقدر دنبال ناشر گشت و حس و حالش روزی که جایزه گرفت و مورد تمجید منتقدین ادبی واقع شد چه بود. کتاب همانقدر که ناگهانی شروع شد، صاعقه وار هم به پایان رسید.
در کل کتاب خوبی ست با قلمی که خوب بلد است با کلمات جادو کند.
August 20, 2019
This is not a well-written book on any measure I can think of. As memoir, it reads like an adolescent’s diary, with all the expected melodrama and awkward word play. As journalism, it fails to provide any context, objectivity, or nuance. As poetry, it made me cringe. Very disappointing because, based on reviews and buzz, I was expecting to love this book. Would be 1-star but the story of how it was written—in WhatsApp messages from the Manus Island detention centre—coupled with the sheer importance of testimonials from refugees detained there, makes this an important book nonetheless. I expect people are rating this book on ideological rather than literary grounds, and maybe that’s okay.
December 24, 2020
کتاب هیچ دوستی به جز کوهستان، روایتی از سفر غیرقانونی برای اقامت گرفتن از کشوری دیگهست و نگاه متفاوتی در مورد این موضوع به ما ارائه میده تا دید بازتر و واقعی���تری نسبت به این مسأله پیدا کنیم.
صادقانه بگم، این دید جدید، تنها چیزی بود که این کتاب برای من داشت. نوع روایت داستان که بیش از حد توصیفی بود حوصلهم رو سر میبرد. البته توصیفی بودن شاید کملطفی در حق کتاب باشه چون توصیفها رو هم توصیف میکرد، توصیف ِ توصیفها رو هم توصیف میکرد. چند مورد شمردم و تا چهار توصیف متوالی رو پیدا کردم! این باعث میشد ذهنم از روی متن بپره و با خستگی به خوندن ادامه بدم.
با اینکه بوچانی خودش در دل ماجراست، اما جوری از فضا فاصله داره، انگار که کتاب راوی دانای کل داره. به نظرم این فاصله، به خواننده هم منتقل میشد و مانع از همذاتپنداری یا برانگیختگی احساسی و هیجانی میشد.
مسألهی دیگهای که حین خوندن این کتاب زیاد از حد تکرار شده بود، استفاده از حیوانات برای توصیف وضعیت یا احساس آدمها بود. به عنوان مثال این حیوانات رو من توی حدود بیست - سی صفحه از کتاب به چشمم اومد و یادداشتشون کردم:
شبیه قوچ عصبانی، مثل گاو، مثل یک بز معصوم، مثل گلهی گوسفندان، مثل گرگ درنده، مثل روباه شل و نزار، مثل خفاش، مورچه، خرچنگ، میمون، کرگدن، پلنگ و ...
البته من مخالف استفاده از حیوانات برای توصیف آدمها نیستم ولی به نظرم این بیش از حد بودن توی ذوق میزد.
تنها قسمت کتاب که هیجانات بوچانی و اطرافیانش برام قابل لمس بود، همون اوایل کتاب، زمانی بود که توی قایق بودند که من رو با خودش همراه کرد، اما بقیهی کتاب رو صرفا خوندم که تموم کرده باشم.
مشکل نهایی کتاب هم برام این بود که داستان برای من ابتدا و انتها نداشت. انگار فقط برشی از یک سری اتفاق بود. چون ادعای کتاب داستانی و رمان رو نداره بهش ۳ ستاره میدم.
----------
یادگاری از کتاب:
انسان گمان میکند که همیشه این اتفاقات مرگبار فقط برای دیگران میافتد و در آن شرایط باور به مرگ و نزدیکی به آن دشوار است؛ گمان میکند که همیشه مرگ خودش با دیگران متفاوت است.
...
اما، هر اتفاقی که بیفتد، همیشه در دل تاریکی و در اوج سرخوردگی میتوان دل به امیدی هر چند کوچک بست، نوری ناچیز در حد یک نقطه، شبیه ستارهای دور در افق تاریک شب.
...
غالبا ندانستن حقیقت آرامش خاطر بزرگی است. فهمیدن و پی بردن به حقیقت، در هر سطح و در هر جایگاهی، ترس یا اضطرابی در نهان آدم برمیانگیزد.
...
همیشه انتظار کشیدن آزارم داده است.
...
برای من تنهایی و سکوت بالاترین موهبتی بود که میتوانست نصیبم شود.
...
جنگی بود برای هیچ، مثل تمام جنگهای تاریخ.
...
آدم گاهی با تصور بدترین اتفاقی که ممکن است برایش پیش بیاید خودش را سرگرم میکند و آنگاه احساسات هولناک، آرامآرام جایشان را به بیخیالی میدهند.
صادقانه بگم، این دید جدید، تنها چیزی بود که این کتاب برای من داشت. نوع روایت داستان که بیش از حد توصیفی بود حوصلهم رو سر میبرد. البته توصیفی بودن شاید کملطفی در حق کتاب باشه چون توصیفها رو هم توصیف میکرد، توصیف ِ توصیفها رو هم توصیف میکرد. چند مورد شمردم و تا چهار توصیف متوالی رو پیدا کردم! این باعث میشد ذهنم از روی متن بپره و با خستگی به خوندن ادامه بدم.
با اینکه بوچانی خودش در دل ماجراست، اما جوری از فضا فاصله داره، انگار که کتاب راوی دانای کل داره. به نظرم این فاصله، به خواننده هم منتقل میشد و مانع از همذاتپنداری یا برانگیختگی احساسی و هیجانی میشد.
مسألهی دیگهای که حین خوندن این کتاب زیاد از حد تکرار شده بود، استفاده از حیوانات برای توصیف وضعیت یا احساس آدمها بود. به عنوان مثال این حیوانات رو من توی حدود بیست - سی صفحه از کتاب به چشمم اومد و یادداشتشون کردم:
شبیه قوچ عصبانی، مثل گاو، مثل یک بز معصوم، مثل گلهی گوسفندان، مثل گرگ درنده، مثل روباه شل و نزار، مثل خفاش، مورچه، خرچنگ، میمون، کرگدن، پلنگ و ...
البته من مخالف استفاده از حیوانات برای توصیف آدمها نیستم ولی به نظرم این بیش از حد بودن توی ذوق میزد.
تنها قسمت کتاب که هیجانات بوچانی و اطرافیانش برام قابل لمس بود، همون اوایل کتاب، زمانی بود که توی قایق بودند که من رو با خودش همراه کرد، اما بقیهی کتاب رو صرفا خوندم که تموم کرده باشم.
مشکل نهایی کتاب هم برام این بود که داستان برای من ابتدا و انتها نداشت. انگار فقط برشی از یک سری اتفاق بود. چون ادعای کتاب داستانی و رمان رو نداره بهش ۳ ستاره میدم.
----------
یادگاری از کتاب:
انسان گمان میکند که همیشه این اتفاقات مرگبار فقط برای دیگران میافتد و در آن شرایط باور به مرگ و نزدیکی به آن دشوار است؛ گمان میکند که همیشه مرگ خودش با دیگران متفاوت است.
...
اما، هر اتفاقی که بیفتد، همیشه در دل تاریکی و در اوج سرخوردگی میتوان دل به امیدی هر چند کوچک بست، نوری ناچیز در حد یک نقطه، شبیه ستارهای دور در افق تاریک شب.
...
غالبا ندانستن حقیقت آرامش خاطر بزرگی است. فهمیدن و پی بردن به حقیقت، در هر سطح و در هر جایگاهی، ترس یا اضطرابی در نهان آدم برمیانگیزد.
...
همیشه انتظار کشیدن آزارم داده است.
...
برای من تنهایی و سکوت بالاترین موهبتی بود که میتوانست نصیبم شود.
...
جنگی بود برای هیچ، مثل تمام جنگهای تاریخ.
...
آدم گاهی با تصور بدترین اتفاقی که ممکن است برایش پیش بیاید خودش را سرگرم میکند و آنگاه احساسات هولناک، آرامآرام جایشان را به بیخیالی میدهند.
August 4, 2020
سال گذشته که خبر موفقیت این کتاب را شنیدم سعی کردم از اخبار مربوط به آن دور بمانم. چون به عادت همیشه دوست دارم نابترین تجربه را ابتدا فقط با خواندن کتاب کسب کنم. به محض اینکه کتاب چاپ شد، دو نسخه از آن را گرفتم چون حس کردم از آنجایی که چاپ اول آن است، امکان دارد چاپ آخر آن نیز باشد. تجربهی خریدن کتاب چاپ اول از نویسندهای که دیگر هیچ کتاب جدیدی از او در ایران منتشر نشد را داشتم. آخرین کتابی که از عباس معروفی در ایران چاپ شده یعنی ذوب شده را ده سال پیش در زمستان ۸۸ همینگونه تهیه کرده بودم. دو نسخه و پیچیده در روزنامه. اینکه داستان این دو کتاب چقدر شبیه هم هستند مورد بحث من نیست. فقط از لحاظ موقعیت چاپ و حس و حال خودم که بعد از ده سال حس کردم کتاب متفاوتی از یک نویسندهی ایرانی خواهم خواند که احتمال دارد دیگر از اون در ایران چیزی چاپ نشود، برایم جالب بود.
هیچ دوستی به جز کوهستان را در سرمای زمستان شروع کردم و همزمان شد با قرنطینه و در خانه ماندن ما در رشت. در حال تجربهی اتفاقی بودیم که شاید فقط در کتابها و فیلم و سریالها آنرا دیده بودیم. ویروسی خطرناک همه گیر شده و از آنجایی که مدیریت سازمان یافتهای برای اینگونه بحرانها در کشور نیست وضعیت از کنترل خارج شده و تنها راه زنده ماندن و عدم ابتلا به آن در خانه ماندن است... همزمان با این قرنطینه همراه کتاب و توصیفات بهروز بوچانی در سفری ناخوشایند از ایران به اندونزی و در نهایت گذر از اقیانوس و رسیدن به استرالیا بودم. اینکه وطن چه کابوسی میتواند باشد را در خط به خط این کتاب میشود با تمام وجود حس کرد. انتخاب مرگ به جای بازگشت به وطنی که حالا دیگرتنها کلمهای بیش نیست اما بابت آن باید تا آخر عمر تقاص پس داد.
خواندن این کتاب اصلا ساده نیست، توضیحات به جا، موقعیتها وحشتناک، توصیفات کافی و همه چیز به طرز باورنکردنیای واقعی است... اگر عادت به تصویرسازی، همدلی و زندگی دردنیای کتابها دارید خواندش مشکل خواهد بود... اما اگر عادت به خواندن کتابهای لویی فردینان سلین دارید از این حجم از سیاهی و تاریکی تعجب نخواهید کرد و حتی ممکن است مانند من خوشحال شوید که بالاخره نویسندهای ایرانی پیدا شده که بتوانید سبک او را به سلین نزدیک بدانید!
اگر طاقت بیاورید و همراه داستان شوید تا به اصطلاحا استرالیا برسید تازه متوجه خواهید شد که غرق شدن در اقیانوس شاید اصلا مرگ سخت و انتهای بدی برای داستان نباشد. تصور کنید انسانهایی با هر مقام و مسلک از ترس جانشان وطن را ترک کردهاند و حالا زندانیهایی در یک تبعیدگاه مخوفند تا ذره ذره بمیرند و یا بشکنند و التماس کنند که به کشورشان دیپورت شوند تا در آنجا سر از زندان دیگری دربیاورند و شاید سریعتر بمیرند. این وقایع واقعی است در حالیکه میبایست در قرن ۲۱ مفهوم آزادی، مرزها و خطوط روی نقشه از همیشه کم رنگتر باشد. آیا دولت استرالیا نمیتواند به جای هزینهای که برای زجرکُش کردن مهاجران غیرقانونی در زندانهای جزیرههایی وسط اقیانوس میکند، به آنها آموزش و فرصت زندگی در جامعه را بدهد؟
اصلا معنا و مفهوم مرز و کشور در دنیای آزاد فعلی چیست؟ انسان سیاست را آفرید تا افساری برای مهار تودهی مردم باشد، اما تا به کی ما سیاهی لشکر خواهیم ماند؟
من انتخابم برای کتاب خواندن همان است که کافکا در نامهای به دوست و همکلاسیاش اسکار پولاک سال ۱۹۰۴ گفته است:
ما به کتابهایی نیاز داریم که اثرشان بر ما مثل یک فاجعه باشد؛ کتابهایی که عمیقا متاثرمان کنند؛ مثل تاثیر مرگ کسی که بیشتر از خودمان دوستش داریم: مثل تبعید شدن به جنگلهایی دور از همه؛ مثل خودکشی. کتاب باید همچون تیشهای باشد برای شکستن دریای یخزدهی درونمان.
و گرنه چه دلیلی دارد که کتاب بخوانیم؟!
در ویدیو بلاگ صفحه ۷۷ در یک پروندهی دو قسمتی به طور کامل به مرور و معرفی این کتاب و نویسندهی آن بهروز بوچانی پرداختم و در مورد وضعیت فعلی پناهندهها در دنیا صحبت میکنم. در قسمت دوم هم به سراغ کتابهای دیگری که در این مورد نوشته شدهاند و فیلم و سریالهای مرتبط با این موضوع رفتم. میتونید از یوتوب ببینید:
نوشتن مقاومت است؛ قسمت اول
نوشتن مقاومت است؛ قسمت دوم
در این مورد در وبلاگ صفحه ۷۷ بیشتر نوشتم:
در جستجوی کمی آرامش
قطرهای در اقیانوس
صفحه۷۷
page77tv
September 4, 2020
هیچ دوستی به جز کوهستان...
دلیل انتخاب این اسم برای کتاب، برای یک کورد زبان و برای کسی که در کردستان زندگی کرده ،خیلی ملموس و قابل درکه
چون واقعیت داستان هم همینه...تنها دوست کوردها کوهستان بوده و بس....
دلیل انتخاب این اسم برای کتاب، برای یک کورد زبان و برای کسی که در کردستان زندگی کرده ،خیلی ملموس و قابل درکه
چون واقعیت داستان هم همینه...تنها دوست کوردها کوهستان بوده و بس....
April 20, 2024
"نصيبي في الحياة بعد ثلاثين عاماً
بعد ثلاثين عاماً من محاولات دؤوبة للعيش تحت سيطرة الحكم الديكتاتوري
بعد ثلاثين عاما من المعاناة تحت ثيوقراطية ذلك المكان الذي يسمى " إيران ".
بعد ثلاثين عاماً فإن نصيبي في الحياة هو لاشئ.
ما الذي كنت سأحمله معي عدا ديوان شعر "
ماذا ستفعل حين تواجه الموت من أجل الهروب من وضع سيئ في بلادك لتجد نفسك تقع في وضع أسوأ ومهانة أخرى. هذا ماحدث مع الصحفي الإيراني الكردي بهروز بوتشاني ومع آخرين غيره .
" عندما أستعيد الظروف التي دفعتني للمغادرة، يغمرني إحساس عميق باليأس . كان الماضي جحيماً . فررت منه، ولست مستعد لتذكره أبداً ، ولا للحظة واحدة. إن التفكير في العودة لإيران ، أو لحياة التشرد والجوع في إندونيسيا ، يجعلني أكثر قوة . ويشجعني على المضي قدماً "
يحكي لنا بهروز محاولته للهروب من إندونيسيا ومواجهه الموت هو ومن كانوا معه على المركب المتهالك الذي كان يحاول تهريبهم إلى استراليا . واجهوا الموت حرفيا حتى وصلوا ليتفاجئوا انهم اصبحوا سجناء في مركز اعتقال في جزيرة مانوس التابعة لدولة بابوا غينيا الجديدة .
"لا أصدق مايحدث لي
كل تلك المصاعب
كل ذلك التنقل من مكان لآخر
كل ذلك الجوع الذي اضطررت لاحتماله
كل شئ .
من أجل الوصول إلى الأراضي الاسترالية
لا أصدق أنني سأنفى إلى " مانوس "
جزيرة صغيرة في قلب المحيط "
فنتعرف على ماحدث معه ومع اخرين علي المركب اولا ثم طريقة المعاملة والمكان الذي تم سجنهم فيه بلا ذنب سوى انهم ارادوا الحياة بشكل افضل والهروب من أوضاع سيئة.لتبدأ رحلة الموت وتعذيب بشكل آخر ، تعذيب بشكل نفسي في الغالب وتحكم في احتياجاتك الجسديه ل��زداد شعور السجين بالمهانة ويصبح مجرد رقم ليتجرد من انسانيته شيئاً فشيئاً.لإجباره اما على الانتحار او طلب العودة لبلاده أو الموت من الأوضاع وسوء التغذية وسوء الاحوال الصحية.
"يتعمد نظام الادارة في السجن إثارة الاضطراب والحيرة في نفوس السجناء ، إلى أن يشعروا بالاغتراب عن أنفسهم وشخصياتهم "
الكتاب تمت كتابته من خلال رسائل على الواتس اب من هاتف محمول استطاع تهريبه فجمعها صديقه أوميد توفيجان وبمساعدة مؤنس منسوبي تمت ترجمة الكتاب للانجليزية .
الكتاب كأنه يوميات وسيرة للكاتب خلال هذه الفترة عن الاحداث التي حدثت معه وحوله مع سجناء آخرين. وعن احوالهم . أسلوب الكتاب روائي شاعري أحيانا. الاسلوب جيد اعجبني .
انجذبت للكتاب بشدة في البداية ثم فقدت مع الوقت اهتمامي وانجذابي بعض الشئ ، ربما لاني شعرت بالإطالة احيانا بدون داعي ووجدت كانها تحولت لرواية في طريقة الوصف وما يقوم بوصفه وليس يوميات او وصف للأحوال .لكن يظل أسلوب الكتابة مميز .
السرد تتخلله اجزاء مكتوبة بطريقة نثرية شعرية مختلفة كانت أحيانا تعجبني واحيانا اخرى لا .
" السجناء محاصرون في خندق التوتر
ملمح أساسي من الحياة اليومية للسجناء
يوم بعد آخر
جانب مفترس للحياة
هذا ما آلت إليه حياتنا
هذا أحد نماذج الحياة البشرية
استغلال الطوابير لقتل الوقت
استغلال الجسد والتحكم به لقتل الوقت
يصبح الجسد منتهكاً ومُستهدفاً
يصبح الجسد مادة للتفتيش
تتحسسه أيدي الآخرين
يصبح هدفاً لنظراتهم
هنا نظام للتبول على العالم بأسره ."
لكن يبقى الكتاب صرخة ضد الظلم والمهانة وصرخة من اللاجئين .
للكتاب فيلم وثائقي بعنوان
" No friend but the mountain "
١٨ / ٦ / ٢٠٢٣
بعد ثلاثين عاماً من محاولات دؤوبة للعيش تحت سيطرة الحكم الديكتاتوري
بعد ثلاثين عاما من المعاناة تحت ثيوقراطية ذلك المكان الذي يسمى " إيران ".
بعد ثلاثين عاماً فإن نصيبي في الحياة هو لاشئ.
ما الذي كنت سأحمله معي عدا ديوان شعر "
ماذا ستفعل حين تواجه الموت من أجل الهروب من وضع سيئ في بلادك لتجد نفسك تقع في وضع أسوأ ومهانة أخرى. هذا ماحدث مع الصحفي الإيراني الكردي بهروز بوتشاني ومع آخرين غيره .
" عندما أستعيد الظروف التي دفعتني للمغادرة، يغمرني إحساس عميق باليأس . كان الماضي جحيماً . فررت منه، ولست مستعد لتذكره أبداً ، ولا للحظة واحدة. إن التفكير في العودة لإيران ، أو لحياة التشرد والجوع في إندونيسيا ، يجعلني أكثر قوة . ويشجعني على المضي قدماً "
يحكي لنا بهروز محاولته للهروب من إندونيسيا ومواجهه الموت هو ومن كانوا معه على المركب المتهالك الذي كان يحاول تهريبهم إلى استراليا . واجهوا الموت حرفيا حتى وصلوا ليتفاجئوا انهم اصبحوا سجناء في مركز اعتقال في جزيرة مانوس التابعة لدولة بابوا غينيا الجديدة .
"لا أصدق مايحدث لي
كل تلك المصاعب
كل ذلك التنقل من مكان لآخر
كل ذلك الجوع الذي اضطررت لاحتماله
كل شئ .
من أجل الوصول إلى الأراضي الاسترالية
لا أصدق أنني سأنفى إلى " مانوس "
جزيرة صغيرة في قلب المحيط "
فنتعرف على ماحدث معه ومع اخرين علي المركب اولا ثم طريقة المعاملة والمكان الذي تم سجنهم فيه بلا ذنب سوى انهم ارادوا الحياة بشكل افضل والهروب من أوضاع سيئة.لتبدأ رحلة الموت وتعذيب بشكل آخر ، تعذيب بشكل نفسي في الغالب وتحكم في احتياجاتك الجسديه ل��زداد شعور السجين بالمهانة ويصبح مجرد رقم ليتجرد من انسانيته شيئاً فشيئاً.لإجباره اما على الانتحار او طلب العودة لبلاده أو الموت من الأوضاع وسوء التغذية وسوء الاحوال الصحية.
"يتعمد نظام الادارة في السجن إثارة الاضطراب والحيرة في نفوس السجناء ، إلى أن يشعروا بالاغتراب عن أنفسهم وشخصياتهم "
الكتاب تمت كتابته من خلال رسائل على الواتس اب من هاتف محمول استطاع تهريبه فجمعها صديقه أوميد توفيجان وبمساعدة مؤنس منسوبي تمت ترجمة الكتاب للانجليزية .
الكتاب كأنه يوميات وسيرة للكاتب خلال هذه الفترة عن الاحداث التي حدثت معه وحوله مع سجناء آخرين. وعن احوالهم . أسلوب الكتاب روائي شاعري أحيانا. الاسلوب جيد اعجبني .
انجذبت للكتاب بشدة في البداية ثم فقدت مع الوقت اهتمامي وانجذابي بعض الشئ ، ربما لاني شعرت بالإطالة احيانا بدون داعي ووجدت كانها تحولت لرواية في طريقة الوصف وما يقوم بوصفه وليس يوميات او وصف للأحوال .لكن يظل أسلوب الكتابة مميز .
السرد تتخلله اجزاء مكتوبة بطريقة نثرية شعرية مختلفة كانت أحيانا تعجبني واحيانا اخرى لا .
" السجناء محاصرون في خندق التوتر
ملمح أساسي من الحياة اليومية للسجناء
يوم بعد آخر
جانب مفترس للحياة
هذا ما آلت إليه حياتنا
هذا أحد نماذج الحياة البشرية
استغلال الطوابير لقتل الوقت
استغلال الجسد والتحكم به لقتل الوقت
يصبح الجسد منتهكاً ومُستهدفاً
يصبح الجسد مادة للتفتيش
تتحسسه أيدي الآخرين
يصبح هدفاً لنظراتهم
هنا نظام للتبول على العالم بأسره ."
لكن يبقى الكتاب صرخة ضد الظلم والمهانة وصرخة من اللاجئين .
للكتاب فيلم وثائقي بعنوان
" No friend but the mountain "
١٨ / ٦ / ٢٠٢٣
May 4, 2020
"We are a bunch of ordinary humans locked up simply for seeking refuge."
No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison is a devastating read, an infuriating read, but it is a story that urgently needs to be heard. It is a haunting and horrific account of one refugee's experience being locked up in an Australian prison (oops, sorry, a processing Centre).
When Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish Iranian journalist, had to flee his homeland, he made his way to Indonesia and from there got passage on an old boat set for Australia. Instead of being welcomed and given asylum, the Australian authorities sent Behrouz to Manus Island where they illegally kept him in horrific conditions for years, along with hundreds of others, including children.
Behrouz laboriously wrote this book in the form of text messages sent from the island. He describes what it was like on Manus Island, what it was like to be locked up for no reason other than wanting to find a safe place to live. What it is like to have all your freedoms stripped away and treated inhumanely. To be kept in miserable conditions for years, to suffer atrocities, never knowing when it would end.
With passionate and poetic prose, Behrouz describes these lost years of his life, the subtle and not-so-subtle torture he and others endured. All because they were seeking a better life.
There are many poems interspersed throughout the book. It is a memoir that also philosophically analyzes the prison complex and the mentality of both prisoner and guard. He explores the psychology of the prisoner, how he must adjust his mindset in order to survive.
I loved the first half of the book, the rhythmic way in which it is told. However, by the second, I began to find it all a bit monotonous. Of course, life would be monotonous for the prisoner and so this makes sense.
After finishing the book and looking online, I learned that the Manus Regional Processing Centre was formally closed in 2017, though some of the detainees remained on the island until 2019. Others were transferred to the island of Port Moresby to await shipment back to their countries of origin.
I was relieved to learn that Behrouz Boochani was, in November 2019, given a one-month visitor's visa to New Zealand to attend a conference. As of the writing of this review, he remains there on an expired visa. I imagine the pandemic has kept him in place, but I can't understand why the New Zealand government has not extended his visa.
Hopefully by the time it is safe to travel again, those in charge will find some sympathy and concern for this man and grant him asylum in their country. If we are unable to find our common humanity now that this virus poses a direct threat to all of us, no matter our country of origin, we will never find it.
No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison is a devastating read, an infuriating read, but it is a story that urgently needs to be heard. It is a haunting and horrific account of one refugee's experience being locked up in an Australian prison (oops, sorry, a processing Centre).
When Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish Iranian journalist, had to flee his homeland, he made his way to Indonesia and from there got passage on an old boat set for Australia. Instead of being welcomed and given asylum, the Australian authorities sent Behrouz to Manus Island where they illegally kept him in horrific conditions for years, along with hundreds of others, including children.
Behrouz laboriously wrote this book in the form of text messages sent from the island. He describes what it was like on Manus Island, what it was like to be locked up for no reason other than wanting to find a safe place to live. What it is like to have all your freedoms stripped away and treated inhumanely. To be kept in miserable conditions for years, to suffer atrocities, never knowing when it would end.
With passionate and poetic prose, Behrouz describes these lost years of his life, the subtle and not-so-subtle torture he and others endured. All because they were seeking a better life.
There are many poems interspersed throughout the book. It is a memoir that also philosophically analyzes the prison complex and the mentality of both prisoner and guard. He explores the psychology of the prisoner, how he must adjust his mindset in order to survive.
I loved the first half of the book, the rhythmic way in which it is told. However, by the second, I began to find it all a bit monotonous. Of course, life would be monotonous for the prisoner and so this makes sense.
After finishing the book and looking online, I learned that the Manus Regional Processing Centre was formally closed in 2017, though some of the detainees remained on the island until 2019. Others were transferred to the island of Port Moresby to await shipment back to their countries of origin.
I was relieved to learn that Behrouz Boochani was, in November 2019, given a one-month visitor's visa to New Zealand to attend a conference. As of the writing of this review, he remains there on an expired visa. I imagine the pandemic has kept him in place, but I can't understand why the New Zealand government has not extended his visa.
Hopefully by the time it is safe to travel again, those in charge will find some sympathy and concern for this man and grant him asylum in their country. If we are unable to find our common humanity now that this virus poses a direct threat to all of us, no matter our country of origin, we will never find it.
August 23, 2019
This is a masterpiece. It is unique in the prison literature- tapped out in Farsi on a mobile phone from Australia's offshore version of Guatanamo- Manus Island prison, where successive Australian governments have imprisoned innocent people without charge indefinitely.
The first three chapters are absolutely harrowing, a pace that has your heart hammering and your hands sweating with anxiety and fear- and then in flips into a description of the gratuitous cruelty of the insane system that rules the prison. The concept Boochani draws on is the Kyriarchy.
Then it twists into a dreamlike sequence - from a dream to a sequence of events that end in a tragic and brutal murder.
Throughout the book the translator Omid Tofighian has done a beautiful job in weaving literary devices from Kurdish folklore and Persian literature- his notes at the beginning and end of the book are well worth the read, as how the book came into being is a miracle.
It will stand out in the prison literature because of its uncompromising- at times difficult to take- honesty, and also because of its inner beauty despite .
the horrors of the setting
The first three chapters are absolutely harrowing, a pace that has your heart hammering and your hands sweating with anxiety and fear- and then in flips into a description of the gratuitous cruelty of the insane system that rules the prison. The concept Boochani draws on is the Kyriarchy.
Then it twists into a dreamlike sequence - from a dream to a sequence of events that end in a tragic and brutal murder.
Throughout the book the translator Omid Tofighian has done a beautiful job in weaving literary devices from Kurdish folklore and Persian literature- his notes at the beginning and end of the book are well worth the read, as how the book came into being is a miracle.
It will stand out in the prison literature because of its uncompromising- at times difficult to take- honesty, and also because of its inner beauty despite .
the horrors of the setting
March 1, 2020
نمیدونم چی بگم از کجا بگم :))
گویا این اثر در نسخه فارسی سانسور شده و در واقع چون تحت نظر نویسنده چاپ شده به قول دوستی باید بهش گفت خودسانسوری. خلاصه با این حجم از خودسانسوری این کتاب در بهترین حالت فقط یک گزارشه!
نسبت دادن انواع صفات و تشبیهات حیوانی و غیره به سایر زندانی ها یه متن رو به قصه تبدیل نمیکنه.
احتمالا این متن در نسخه انگلیسی یک گزارش+مانیفست سیاسی بوچانی و علل ترک وطن بوده (هرچند که با انفعال راوی در تمام کتاب بعید میدونم! ) و نسخه فارسی با وجود سانسور چیزی ازش نمونده جز گزارش. جالب اینکه این گزارش و توصیفات بازهم تصویر روشنی حتی از همون زندان پناهجوها نمیده. و سوال های زیادی برای خواننده ایجاد میکنه. و در نهایت این گزارش درست در نقطه ای که داشت جالب میشد (شروع شورش) تموم میشه.
گویا این اثر در نسخه فارسی سانسور شده و در واقع چون تحت نظر نویسنده چاپ شده به قول دوستی باید بهش گفت خودسانسوری. خلاصه با این حجم از خودسانسوری این کتاب در بهترین حالت فقط یک گزارشه!
نسبت دادن انواع صفات و تشبیهات حیوانی و غیره به سایر زندانی ها یه متن رو به قصه تبدیل نمیکنه.
احتمالا این متن در نسخه انگلیسی یک گزارش+مانیفست سیاسی بوچانی و علل ترک وطن بوده (هرچند که با انفعال راوی در تمام کتاب بعید میدونم! ) و نسخه فارسی با وجود سانسور چیزی ازش نمونده جز گزارش. جالب اینکه این گزارش و توصیفات بازهم تصویر روشنی حتی از همون زندان پناهجوها نمیده. و سوال های زیادی برای خواننده ایجاد میکنه. و در نهایت این گزارش درست در نقطه ای که داشت جالب میشد (شروع شورش) تموم میشه.
January 12, 2021
از میانِ رفتن و ماندن، راوی این نوشته، مانند همهی آن ۱۷۶ نفر راهی را برگزیده که رهگذر کمتری دارد: جان به دریای طوفانی سپردن. هر چند که در پس این برگزیدن، آدمی، همواره به آن راهی میاندیشد که نرفته است. ایستادن، و به اعماق راهها نگریستن، و رفتن. میخواهد بگوید که رنج، همواره در دسترس آدمیست. جدا شدن از گلها و آدمها و کتابهای خانهات، رهایی از روح اشیاء اتاقت، و گام نهادن در راهی که انگار همیشه باید در پی بهانهای برای توجیه گزینشش باشی؛ که اگر مانده بودم، حتما رنج بیشتری میداشتم. یکی میرود و آدم، توی ذهنش، به خودش چنین میگوید: او رفته است و به رفتنش ادامه میدهد.
January 19, 2019
Finally finished! This book was so hard to read. I usually don’t struggle with translations but I’m sure with this one something must have been lost. Such an important story, just didn’t do it for me.
March 16, 2020
بهروز ، ی روز خوب میاد
به امید آزادی در چنگال اسارت
زندگی در لجنزاد ، به امید آینده ای بهتر
اسیر سیستم ، شورش علیه سیستم
اول فکر میکردم کتاب مانند فیلم پاپیون میمونه
نظرم عوض شد
[هر جزیره داستان خودشو داره]
روزی ادبیات دنیارو نجات میده همینطور که بوچانیرو نجات داد.
شاید
به امید آزادی در چنگال اسارت
زندگی در لجنزاد ، به امید آینده ای بهتر
اسیر سیستم ، شورش علیه سیستم
اول فکر میکردم کتاب مانند فیلم پاپیون میمونه
نظرم عوض شد
[هر جزیره داستان خودشو داره]
روزی ادبیات دنیارو نجات میده همینطور که بوچانیرو نجات داد.
شاید
June 18, 2019
WINNER OF THE 2019 ABIA GENERAL NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR.
It is nothing short of a triumph of human spirit and resilience in the face of insurmountable odds that I am sitting here reading this book, in its current format, in English. This wonderful book was compiled over time, translated from Farsi, and smuggled out of Manus Island from thousands of text messages thumbed out on a mobile phone.
It chronicles the downright, horrible, despicable, conditions on Manus Island and the inhumane treatment, causing pernicious damage to its inmates. This is a book that the Australian Government would have tried desperately to stop or censure if they had known of its existence. Inmates being treated little better than prisoners of a non-existent war. Every freedom taken away from them. When some prisoners try to set up a simple backgammon board to pass the time even this is taken away by the guards. Now what possible purpose could they have for taking this board away and denying the prisoners any creature comforts at all, other than the fact that they want them to return to whichever of the numerous conflicts that they were fleeing from. For many of them, this would mean certain death. The Australian Government wants to send a clear message that this is what will happen if you try to enter the country by way of these people smugglers. The people smugglers are the Government’s “silver bullet”. The line that the incumbent Prime Minister loves to spout. “We are doing this to shut down the people smugglers!”. I think the Australian public is smart enough to know that the problem is far more nuanced than that.
Boochani describes the horrible cramped conditions in a paradoxically poetic way. This book does not read like a journalist’s front page story, and this makes it even more powerful. The oppressive heat, the lack of anything to stimulate a human being at all. Can you imagine living in such conditions without knowing how long you were going to be held, with each day despair indelibly growing. Knowing that you have committed no crime, you were just trying to save the lives of your daughter, your son, your family.
Imagine the feeling of elation when you realise you have escaped death from drowning, cramped to the gunwale on a boat that can barely stay afloat, it’s pumps failing, only to have that feeling ripped away from you and replaced with desolation as you are locked up on an island in the middle of nowhere. To make a diabolical situation even worse this transfer of refugees to Manus Island came into effect four days before Boochani was picked up.
I believe everybody should read this book and learn what is going on with the whole situation on Manus Island. Yes, it is a difficult problem in the modern world, and yes terrorism is a clear and present threat but there must be a better solution than this system. It is inhumane, cruel, and stealing away any dignity that these poor people have left. We cannot simply bury our heads in the sand and think this is not our problem. Some of these people have been locked up on Manus Island for five years now. European countries and their leaders have taken risks. Germany and Merkel in particular. When it comes to human lives solutions must be found, risks must be taken. It is high time we set this wrong right and this powerful book is a tool to be used in the struggle.
A brilliant book and Behrouz Boochani should be commended and applauded for the struggle in writing it and getting it into our hands. 5 stars.
It is nothing short of a triumph of human spirit and resilience in the face of insurmountable odds that I am sitting here reading this book, in its current format, in English. This wonderful book was compiled over time, translated from Farsi, and smuggled out of Manus Island from thousands of text messages thumbed out on a mobile phone.
It chronicles the downright, horrible, despicable, conditions on Manus Island and the inhumane treatment, causing pernicious damage to its inmates. This is a book that the Australian Government would have tried desperately to stop or censure if they had known of its existence. Inmates being treated little better than prisoners of a non-existent war. Every freedom taken away from them. When some prisoners try to set up a simple backgammon board to pass the time even this is taken away by the guards. Now what possible purpose could they have for taking this board away and denying the prisoners any creature comforts at all, other than the fact that they want them to return to whichever of the numerous conflicts that they were fleeing from. For many of them, this would mean certain death. The Australian Government wants to send a clear message that this is what will happen if you try to enter the country by way of these people smugglers. The people smugglers are the Government’s “silver bullet”. The line that the incumbent Prime Minister loves to spout. “We are doing this to shut down the people smugglers!”. I think the Australian public is smart enough to know that the problem is far more nuanced than that.
Boochani describes the horrible cramped conditions in a paradoxically poetic way. This book does not read like a journalist’s front page story, and this makes it even more powerful. The oppressive heat, the lack of anything to stimulate a human being at all. Can you imagine living in such conditions without knowing how long you were going to be held, with each day despair indelibly growing. Knowing that you have committed no crime, you were just trying to save the lives of your daughter, your son, your family.
Imagine the feeling of elation when you realise you have escaped death from drowning, cramped to the gunwale on a boat that can barely stay afloat, it’s pumps failing, only to have that feeling ripped away from you and replaced with desolation as you are locked up on an island in the middle of nowhere. To make a diabolical situation even worse this transfer of refugees to Manus Island came into effect four days before Boochani was picked up.
I believe everybody should read this book and learn what is going on with the whole situation on Manus Island. Yes, it is a difficult problem in the modern world, and yes terrorism is a clear and present threat but there must be a better solution than this system. It is inhumane, cruel, and stealing away any dignity that these poor people have left. We cannot simply bury our heads in the sand and think this is not our problem. Some of these people have been locked up on Manus Island for five years now. European countries and their leaders have taken risks. Germany and Merkel in particular. When it comes to human lives solutions must be found, risks must be taken. It is high time we set this wrong right and this powerful book is a tool to be used in the struggle.
A brilliant book and Behrouz Boochani should be commended and applauded for the struggle in writing it and getting it into our hands. 5 stars.
Read
November 28, 2019It feels wrong to rate a book like this which is so deeply personal and so embedded within the author's experiences of suffering. Like, 'thanks for sharing your trauma with me it was worth x stars' just doesn't feel right.
Most Australian's probably know about this story or this book - but for those unaware. This is Behrouz Boochani's account of life within Manus Island Detention Centre, which is a prison where refugees attempting to enter Australia were held without charge, and indefinitely, as part of Australia's Federal 'Border Control' policy. The book was written in a series of text messages to Australian journalists, which were then translated from Farsi to English and turned into this book.
Boochani details his experience travelling to Australia, being detained by the Australian navy, sent to Manus Island, and then the experiences he and his fellow detainees went through, which includes reported events such as the 2014 riot, the murder of Reza Barati by staff at the facility and the death of Hamid Kehazaei after he was denied medical care and the suicide of inmates amongst others.
I absolutely think this is an important book Australian's should read. It's confronting and forces you to contend with the inhumane policies Australia has supported for years. It wasn't entirely what I was expecting, it's more philosophical and political (in the sense of Boochani analysing the prison structure as a political scientist) but I enjoyed that. It wasn't so much a memoir, but more a blend of analysis, literature review, political science and memoir. It's surreal in places, and definitely horrific, though I didn't seem to appreciate or enjoy the political and lyrical sections as much as some other reviewers.
Overall, a must-read for Australian's. End mandatory detention and #BringThemHere
Read
July 8, 2023...
Ruuuuuuuuuuuun Behrouz Ruuuuuuuuuuun
...
Hurry up...
Death is coming
“Sherko Bekas”
...
...
Run Behrouz Run...
January 6, 2019
My friend Maggie said it best in her review of this book- it feels wrong, inappropriate even to give a star rating to someone’s story of human suffering like this. So in that sense, my rating is not an expression of the quality of this narrative, but the significance of this text. No Friend But the Mountains is an important story, about refugee experience in Australia. It is a harrowing story, and one which we must engage with critically, in order to restore humanity, to the way we treat those who need it most.
As a text, the origins of this book are also interesting. I appreciated the extensive analysis of the writing and translation process, and the essay at the end explaining some of the more original conceptual and stylistic choices. This is so much more than a work of journalism, it is a literary exploration of the refugee experience, as it is lived. Required reading.
As a text, the origins of this book are also interesting. I appreciated the extensive analysis of the writing and translation process, and the essay at the end explaining some of the more original conceptual and stylistic choices. This is so much more than a work of journalism, it is a literary exploration of the refugee experience, as it is lived. Required reading.
February 13, 2020
My government tortures people.
The government I fund with my taxes, the government that represents me as an Australian citizen, locked innocent people in a brutal, spirit crushing offshore gulag with the express purpose of breaking them physically and emotionally.
That is the inescapable conclusion any reasonable reader will reach after finishing Behrouz Boochani’s No Friend but The Mountains.
Who are these people who were so poorly treated? Refugees. The weakest of the weak. People fleeing war, oppression and mistreatment with nothing but their dwindling savings and a bag of clothes.
Why did my government treat them so harshly? To make a political point. To make soft men and women – mollycoddled government ministers with chauffeured cars, pharaonic salaries and lavish daily meal allowances - look like tough people of action. To distract the Australian public from other, less easily dealt with issues.
For these tawdry prizes desperate people were broken, and in some cases killed.
No Friend but The Mountains tells the story of these people, through Boochani’s own experiences as a prisoner of Australia in Manus Island Prison.
But this is more than a prison story, as worthy an entrant to that genre as it is. While Boochani's book deserves to be shelved along with classics of the genre such as The Gulag Archipelago, it is not the unremittingly bleak parade of dehumanization and petty bureaucracy it has every right to be.
Boochani has a writer’s soul, and he writes with insight and beauty of the things he saw. This isn’t just the story of the people who suffered and died under Australia’s care – is is the story of a thinker and a poet who survives the worst that a grinding system can throw at him remains a feeling, dreaming human being.
As we follow Boochani through his time in prison his wry eye for detail brings out the absurd and human among both the people he shares his cells with and the wardens who lock them up. From ‘The Cow’ - the inmate who is always (at any cost) the first in line for the dining queue, through to the Papuan guards whose hearts are not in oppressing the inmates, who show kindnesses the Australian guards discourage.
We see Boochani in his near-fatal attempts to reach Australia from Indonesia. We see him imprisoned, arriving mere days after Australia’s government declares that boat arrivals will never be allowed to settle in Australia. We see him underfed in prison, promised dental care that never comes, sweating at night in a tropical sauna where the power to the meagre fans regularly fails.
Meanwhile, we watch as prisoners are constantly asked to sign deportation papers, to return home to what for some will be imprisonment, for others, a death sentence.
Some break, unable to take imprisonment any longer, and take up the pen.
Eventually, we see the prisoners began to chafe under their poor treatment, and to demand better conditions, their agitation leading to the violence that is inevitable when you systematically take away people’s hope.
Along the way Boochani’s gift for lyrical writing and poetry is ever-present, his beautiful imagery lifting things above the sordid crimes being committed against him and his fellow prisoners.
The fact that this book was written from prison, via text message, and translated from Kurdish to English, makes it all the more impressive. It is essential reading for every Australian and anyone concerned with the rights of refugees.
I usually hesitate to call any book an instant classic, but that is what No Friend but The Mountains is. This book is a landmark, a burning, incandescent indictment of what Australia has done to refugees under its care, and a work of insight and beauty in its own right.
Five stars.
P.S: Boochani has since escaped from Manus Island, spirited to New Zealand by allies and friends. He no longer has to endure the indignities of Australia’s Gulag.
The government I fund with my taxes, the government that represents me as an Australian citizen, locked innocent people in a brutal, spirit crushing offshore gulag with the express purpose of breaking them physically and emotionally.
That is the inescapable conclusion any reasonable reader will reach after finishing Behrouz Boochani’s No Friend but The Mountains.
Who are these people who were so poorly treated? Refugees. The weakest of the weak. People fleeing war, oppression and mistreatment with nothing but their dwindling savings and a bag of clothes.
Why did my government treat them so harshly? To make a political point. To make soft men and women – mollycoddled government ministers with chauffeured cars, pharaonic salaries and lavish daily meal allowances - look like tough people of action. To distract the Australian public from other, less easily dealt with issues.
For these tawdry prizes desperate people were broken, and in some cases killed.
No Friend but The Mountains tells the story of these people, through Boochani’s own experiences as a prisoner of Australia in Manus Island Prison.
But this is more than a prison story, as worthy an entrant to that genre as it is. While Boochani's book deserves to be shelved along with classics of the genre such as The Gulag Archipelago, it is not the unremittingly bleak parade of dehumanization and petty bureaucracy it has every right to be.
Boochani has a writer’s soul, and he writes with insight and beauty of the things he saw. This isn’t just the story of the people who suffered and died under Australia’s care – is is the story of a thinker and a poet who survives the worst that a grinding system can throw at him remains a feeling, dreaming human being.
As we follow Boochani through his time in prison his wry eye for detail brings out the absurd and human among both the people he shares his cells with and the wardens who lock them up. From ‘The Cow’ - the inmate who is always (at any cost) the first in line for the dining queue, through to the Papuan guards whose hearts are not in oppressing the inmates, who show kindnesses the Australian guards discourage.
We see Boochani in his near-fatal attempts to reach Australia from Indonesia. We see him imprisoned, arriving mere days after Australia’s government declares that boat arrivals will never be allowed to settle in Australia. We see him underfed in prison, promised dental care that never comes, sweating at night in a tropical sauna where the power to the meagre fans regularly fails.
Meanwhile, we watch as prisoners are constantly asked to sign deportation papers, to return home to what for some will be imprisonment, for others, a death sentence.
Some break, unable to take imprisonment any longer, and take up the pen.
Eventually, we see the prisoners began to chafe under their poor treatment, and to demand better conditions, their agitation leading to the violence that is inevitable when you systematically take away people’s hope.
Along the way Boochani’s gift for lyrical writing and poetry is ever-present, his beautiful imagery lifting things above the sordid crimes being committed against him and his fellow prisoners.
The fact that this book was written from prison, via text message, and translated from Kurdish to English, makes it all the more impressive. It is essential reading for every Australian and anyone concerned with the rights of refugees.
I usually hesitate to call any book an instant classic, but that is what No Friend but The Mountains is. This book is a landmark, a burning, incandescent indictment of what Australia has done to refugees under its care, and a work of insight and beauty in its own right.
Five stars.
P.S: Boochani has since escaped from Manus Island, spirited to New Zealand by allies and friends. He no longer has to endure the indignities of Australia’s Gulag.
December 5, 2018
‘Do the Kurds have any friends other than the mountains?’
I read this book in November and have struggled since to try to assemble the right words with which to review it. I think that all Australians should read this book, regardless of whether they support the existing Australian Government detention policy. Those who do not support mandatory detention will find plenty here to support their views. And surely those who do support mandatory detention must concerned by the consequences of the indefinite nature of it? There must be a better way.
This book is remarkable. Consider the way is which it was written. Over a period of almost five years, Behrouz Boochani typed passages of his book into his mobile phone. He used Whatsapp to text message these passages to Moones Mansoubi who filed them. She then arranged the text messages into chapters based on Behrouz Boochani’s instructions and subsequently sent to Omid Tofighian for translation from Farsi into English. Then consider the content. The book contains a firsthand account of life for detainees on Manus Island. We, the general public in Australia, have not had much access to firsthand accounts. Finally, despite the conditions in which the book was written and the harrowing detail it contains, there’s a beauty in the language which rises above the horrors depicted.
This is Behrouz Boochani’s book, but it is not primarily about him. He uses his journalistic and observational skills to provide Manus detainees with a voice. And that voice tells a story that sickens and saddens me.
‘Behrouz is convinced that the general public have yet to grasp the horrors of systematic torture integral to the detention system. The primary aim of the book is to expose and communicate this very fact.’ (Translator’s Reflections)
While I think that Behrouz Boochani is right in that the general public does not fully understand ‘the horrors of systematic torture integral to the detention system’, many Australians accept the view of our political leaders (from both major parties) that mandatory detention is necessary. More of us need to question this, more of us need to put pressure on politicians to re-examine our response to those seeking asylum. As Richard Flanagan writes: ‘Reading this book is difficult for any Australian.’
Sometimes we need to do difficult things.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
I read this book in November and have struggled since to try to assemble the right words with which to review it. I think that all Australians should read this book, regardless of whether they support the existing Australian Government detention policy. Those who do not support mandatory detention will find plenty here to support their views. And surely those who do support mandatory detention must concerned by the consequences of the indefinite nature of it? There must be a better way.
This book is remarkable. Consider the way is which it was written. Over a period of almost five years, Behrouz Boochani typed passages of his book into his mobile phone. He used Whatsapp to text message these passages to Moones Mansoubi who filed them. She then arranged the text messages into chapters based on Behrouz Boochani’s instructions and subsequently sent to Omid Tofighian for translation from Farsi into English. Then consider the content. The book contains a firsthand account of life for detainees on Manus Island. We, the general public in Australia, have not had much access to firsthand accounts. Finally, despite the conditions in which the book was written and the harrowing detail it contains, there’s a beauty in the language which rises above the horrors depicted.
This is Behrouz Boochani’s book, but it is not primarily about him. He uses his journalistic and observational skills to provide Manus detainees with a voice. And that voice tells a story that sickens and saddens me.
‘Behrouz is convinced that the general public have yet to grasp the horrors of systematic torture integral to the detention system. The primary aim of the book is to expose and communicate this very fact.’ (Translator’s Reflections)
While I think that Behrouz Boochani is right in that the general public does not fully understand ‘the horrors of systematic torture integral to the detention system’, many Australians accept the view of our political leaders (from both major parties) that mandatory detention is necessary. More of us need to question this, more of us need to put pressure on politicians to re-examine our response to those seeking asylum. As Richard Flanagan writes: ‘Reading this book is difficult for any Australian.’
Sometimes we need to do difficult things.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
March 22, 2023
من نسخهی صوتی این کتاب با صدای نوید محمدزاده رو گوش دادم چون فکر میکردم میتونه به جذابیت کتاب اضافه کنه. به صورت کلی خوانش نوید محمدزاده خیلی خوب بود اما یه جاهایی یهو مکثهای طولانی و غیرمنتظره پیش میاومد موقع خوندنش که عجیب بود، در حدی که من فکر میکردم اینترنت یا گوشیم مشکل داره و پخش نمیشه! از طرفی توصیفهای کتاب یه جاهایی به صورتی بود که دنبال کردنش سخت بود و تمرکزم رو از دست میدادم، و خب کتاب صوتی صبر نمیکنه که تو تمرکزت برگرده و عبور میکنه! به صورت کلی قسمتهای اول کتاب رو دوست داشتم و خیلی نکات جالبی داشت برام اما از یه جایی به بعد، مخصوصاً جاهایی که اتفاقات زندان رو توصیف میکرد خیلی با کتاب ارتباط برقرار نمیکردم. اساساً هم ارتباط فصلها با هم خوب نبود، یهو میپرید و این پرشهای ناگهانی رو درک نمیکردم. شخصیتها هم میتونستن بهتر توصیف بشن، به نظرم اومد کمی سطحی توصیف شدن. البته به صورت کلی یه اشارههایی هم داشت که واقعاً جذاب بودن ولی توقع بیشتری داشتم از این کتاب که برآورده نشد.
لینک کتاب در طاقچه:
https://taaghche.com/book/83760/%D9%8...
لینک کتاب در طاقچه:
https://taaghche.com/book/83760/%D9%8...
February 24, 2020
مرگ، با این که عظمتی به اندازهی خود زندگی دارد، بسیار ساده اتفاق میافتد: پوچ و بیهوده؛ درست مثل خود زندگی. اشتباه است اگر خیال کنیم مردن ما با مردن میلیاردها انسان دیگری که تابهحال مردهاند و از این پس نیز خواهند مرد خیلی متفاوت است. نه، مرگ یک حادثهی ساده اس�� و همهی مرگها پوچ و بیهودهاند. مردن در راه دفاع از یک سرزمین یا یک ارزش بزرگ با مردن برای یک بستنی چوبی هیچ تفاوتی ندارد. مرگ مرگ است: ساده و پوچ و ناگهانی، درست شبیه تولد.
April 8, 2020
من سالهاست با درد مهاجرت آشنام، خصوصا غیر قانونی اش، شاید حتی قبل از به دنیا آمدن و بسته شدن نطفه ام، شاید همان وقتی که جوانی بیست و چند ساله به امید آینده ی بهتر به خاک ایران پا گذاشت...پدرم...و بعد تر خیلی سختتر با مهاجرت آشنا شدم، جان هایی به رود های مرزی سپردیم، شب هایی تا صبح با ترس و گریه خوابیدم، که از مرز رد شد؟ نشد؟ سربازها شلیک کردند؟ نکردند؟ قاچاقبر پولها رو دزدید؟ ندزدید؟ رسید؟ نرسید؟ و وحشتناک ترین صدای آن روزها صدای تلفن بود....دردهای کتاب بوچانی برایم به طور زننده ای آشنا بود و قابل لمس....راستش هیچ نقد ادبی ندارم فقط می تونم بگم که عاشق کتابش شدم چون از دردهای آشنا حرف می زد...خیلی آشنا
February 25, 2020
خب... من یک ریشه کردی دارم، حتی اگر اهالی استان کردستان قبولش نداشته باشند. ریشه ارتباط پسرها و مادرهای کرد را هم از ارتباط بابا با مامی میدانم. اما این"دالگه" کردی کتاب، قلب من را هم به درد آورد چه رسد به قلب بهروز بوچانی را.
زندگی باید خیلی خیلی خیلی سخت باشد که به امید بهتر شدنش، راه بوچانی و بوچانیها را در پیش بگیری در مدت چندین و چند سال کوتاهی که روی کرهی خاکی خواهی گذراند. امیدوارم بهروز بوچانی حالا در جای بهتری باشد.
ممنون برای قلمت...
زندگی باید خیلی خیلی خیلی سخت باشد که به امید بهتر شدنش، راه بوچانی و بوچانیها را در پیش بگیری در مدت چندین و چند سال کوتاهی که روی کرهی خاکی خواهی گذراند. امیدوارم بهروز بوچانی حالا در جای بهتری باشد.
ممنون برای قلمت...
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