Awards

• Long-listed for Redbridge Children's Book Awards (UK).

Overview

Madina’s family have fled war to seek asylum in Europe and begin a hopeful new life. An ordinary world of fitting in at school, learning the language and forging friendships lies before Madina. Yet she finds herself caught between her new life and her traumatic memories of the past. With the endless wait to be granted asylum, and her anxious father growing ever more controlling, can Madina find the path that’s right for her? Translated by Claire Storey

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9781839131240

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Reviews

a book that rings with authenticity, with an engaging story that resists stereotyping or over-simplification. This well-crafted novel is a serious contender for one of the best books of this new year -- Claire Hennessy * The Irish Times * The impact of war and personal trauma makes it all the harder for a young refugee to settle into a new life and Julya captures all this hauntingly and sensitively... The author holds just enough back to keep the reader wanting to know more * Jewish News * Spare and powerful, Julya Rabinowich writes a refugee story about arriving - with an antiwar message. Not only is the simple yet powerful language remarkable, Rabinowich also writes convincingly complex and ambivalent characters * Die Zeit * An impressive novel that vividly illuminates the conflict among children and young people who are torn between two cultures and who have to find a new home. A moving story about friendship, migration and growing up in times of war and emigration * Radio Deutschlandfunk * Rabinowich gives her young heroine a strong and poetic voice. Her experiences could not have been described in a more exciting and haunting way * Radio Bremen *

Spare and powerful, Julya Rabinowich writes a refugee story about arriving - with an antiwar message. Not only is the simple yet powerful language remarkable, Rabinowich also writes convincingly complex and ambivalent characters * Die Zeit * An impressive novel that vividly illuminates the conflict among children and young people who are torn between two cultures and who have to find a new home. A moving story about friendship, migration and growing up in times of war and emigration * Radio Deutschlandfunk * Rabinowich gives her young heroine a strong and poetic voice. Her experiences could not have been described in a more exciting and haunting way * Radio Bremen * Madina becomes a voice for everyone who has to build a new life abroad * Neue Zurcher Zeitung * Julya Rabinowich is particularly convincing with her fictionalization; no trace of a well-intentioned refugee story, just skilfully sparse impressions from the first sentence. The style is concise yet warm ... Rabinowich portrays the self-discovery of an adolescent respectfully and sensitively * Neue Zurcher Zeitung *

Author Information

Julya Rabinowich (Author) Julya Rabinowich was born in St Petersburg in 1970. Her family emigrated to Vienna in 1977. She works as a writer, columnist and painter, as well as an interpreter. For many years she also worked with refugees and survivors of war and torture. Her adult and YA novels have won numerous awards, including the Friedrich Gerstäcker Prize, the Austrian Children's and Young People's Book Prize and the Luchs Prize for Me, In Between.

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