Baghlan Boy

Baghlan Boy is a novel from Michael Crowley.

When he is just eleven years old, a strike from a drone destroys Farood Abali's family home in Afghanistan's Baghlan Province.

It kills his father and leaves Farood and his older brother, alone as the sole survivors.

His brother takes the family's flock of sheep and sells them, using the money to pay a shadowy 'agent' to take Farood to the West. He hopes that, eventually, Farood would be able to return with wealth to free them from their poverty.

The journey that Farood takes is a harsh one, he endures pain and suffering as he traverses Pakistan, Iran and Turkey kept in the boots of cars, or forced to hide in cellars and in trailers.

But by the time he is 19, Farood is incarcerated in an English jail, imprisoned, or so he claims, for a crime which he is innocent of.

But could Farood escape from his imprisonment? And if he could, what would he do? What could he do?

This is a remarkable novel which is an intelligent look at how and why people become refugees in our modern world.

It's published by The Book Guild at £8.99.