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Home > Translation > The World Bookshelf > Books > In The Sea There Are Crocodiles

In The Sea There Are Crocodiles

One night before putting him to bed, Enaiatollah’s mother tells him three things: don’t use drugs, don’t use weapons, don’t steal. The next day he wakes up to find she isn’t there. Ten-year-old Enaiatollah is left alone in Pakistan to fend for himself. In a book that takes a true story and shapes it into a beautiful piece of fiction, Italian novelist Fabio Geda describes Enaiatollah’s remarkable five-year journey from Afghanistan to Italy where he finally managed to claim political asylum aged fifteen. His ordeal took him through Iran, Turkey and Greece, working on building sites in order to pay people-traffickers, and enduring the physical misery of dangerous border crossings squeezed into the false bottoms of lorries or trekking across inhospitable mountains. A series of almost implausible strokes of fortune enabled him to get to Turin, find help from an Italian family and meet Fabio Geda, with whom he became friends. The result of their friendship is this unique book in which Enaiatollah’s engaging, moving voice is brilliantly captured by Geda’s subtly simple storytelling. In Geda’s hands, Enaiatollah’s journey becomes a universal story of stoicism in the face of fear, and the search for a place where life is liveable.

‘Geda’s voice combines the plucky survivor’s determination of his charge with moments of pathos-soaked poignancy and others of joyful laughter . . . This little gem, beautifully and unobtrusively translated, will raise tears of sorrow and of joy’
Independent 

Author

Fabio Geda

Fabio Geda

Books

In The Sea There Are Crocodiles

Fabio Geda was born in Turin in 1972. A successful Italian novelist, he also writes for several Italian magazines and newspapers, and teaches creative writing in Scuola Holden, Turin.  His first novel, Per il resto del viaggio ho sparato agli indiani, was published in 2007 in Italy, France and Romania, and won the Best Debut Award for Literary Via Po Torino. He released his second novel, L’esatta sequenza dei gesti, in 2008.

In the Sea There Are Crocodiles is Geda’s first book to be translated into English. It is based on his relationship with Enaiatollah Akbari, whom he looked after upon the young boy’s arrival in Turin.

Translator

Howard Curtis

Howard Curtis

Books

In The Sea There Are Crocodiles

Night Prayers

Howard Curtis is one of the top translators working in the UK.  He translates from French, Spanish and Italian, and many of his translations have been awarded or shortlisted for translation prizes.

Published by

David Fickling Books and Harvill Secker, 2011
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One night before putting him to bed, Enaiatollah’s mother tells him three things: don’t use drugs, don’t use weapons, don’t steal. The next day he wakes up to find she isn’t there. Ten-year-old Enaiatollah is left alone in Pakistan to fend for himself. In a book that takes a true story and shapes it into a beautiful piece of fiction, Italian novelist Fabio Geda describes Enaiatollah’s remarkable five-year journey from Afghanistan to Italy where he finally managed to claim political asylum aged fifteen. His ordeal took him through Iran, Turkey and Greece, working on building sites in order to pay people-traffickers, and enduring the physical misery of dangerous border crossings squeezed into the false bottoms of lorries or trekking across inhospitable mountains. A series of almost implausible strokes of fortune enabled him to get to Turin, find help from an Italian family and meet Fabio Geda, with whom he became friends. The result of their friendship is this unique book in which Enaiatollah’s engaging, moving voice is brilliantly captured by Geda’s subtly simple storytelling. In Geda’s hands, Enaiatollah’s journey becomes a universal story of stoicism in the face of fear, and the search for a place where life is liveable.

‘Geda’s voice combines the plucky survivor’s determination of his charge with moments of pathos-soaked poignancy and others of joyful laughter . . . This little gem, beautifully and unobtrusively translated, will raise tears of sorrow and of joy’
Independent 

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