When Ghalib, a 13-year-old Kurdish boy from Kobani in Syria, gets injured in an airstrike, his father realises his children are in grave danger. He makes the decision to flee with his family. They travel to Aleppo by bus, and from there they make their painful way on foot to the Turkish border. There is filth and chaos at the border, thousands of people wanting to cross into Turkey. Ghalib gets separated from his family and makes his way over the border alone. He is later reunited with his family at a Turkish refugee camp – all except his grandmother, who died on the hard journey. After some time the family decides to move on, so they leave the camp and set off again, for the coast. They hand over the last of their money to get on a boat to Greece. But it’s overcrowded and unseaworthy and capsizes within reach of the Greek coast. Ghalib swims ashore – but what has happened to his disabled little brother Aylan? Can he possibly have survived the treacherous crossing? An accurate and brilliantly-written tale of the journey of one young boy as he flees the war in Syria
