by Carrie McKinnon
Active Distribution
2017, paperback
SKU: 9781909798205
Subtitled 'more tales of migration', this collection of deeply moving vignettes, coupled with accounts from the frontlines of resistance, and largely presented in graphic novel form, pulls no punches. In the title story, panels sometimes seem to be arranged in not-quite-linear order, and this serves to disorientate the reader well, mirroring the confusion and all-pervading insecurity infesting every moment of Aminullah's fraught and dangerous journey from Afghanistan to Paris.
The handwritten text and occasional spelling mistake only exacerbates the profound sense of dislocation as we move on to Iran and Greece, making the reading of Aminullah a thoroughly jarring experience, giving it the feel of a smuggled document. The second half is taken up by the author's accounts of resisting a mass deportation from a refugee prison in England, and of further hands-on solidarity work in and around Calais.