Refugee Literature

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Where is the literature that recounts the experience of being a political, humanitarian, or quota refugee?

As usual, I'm probably being dense, but I don't remember having seen any refugee literature in my travels between the covers of a book.

― SRH (Skrik), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

First thought that comes to my mind is The Tyrant's Novel by Thomas Keneally (the author who wrote Schindlers Ark).

Recounts the experience of a fictional author and the events leading up to his escape from an equally fictional Middle Eastern country (which looks very much like Iraq) and his subsequent detainment in the very real refugee detention centres that we have in Australia (to our eternal shame).

Not sure if it was released in the States.

― oblomov, Thursday, 26 August 2004 02:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Do you mean strictly non-fiction refugee literature?
I can think of a couple fictional accounts.

― SJ Lefty, Thursday, 26 August 2004 02:55 (twenty-one years ago)

No, no, I was talking about fictional accounts, which usually are much more gripping than their non-fiction counterparts. But I would appreciate non-fiction book titles, too.

― SRH (Skrik), Thursday, 26 August 2004 10:59 (twenty-one years ago)

'Refusal Shoes' by Tony Saint - 'going through immigration will never be the same again'. It's a novel by an ex-immigration officer.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Thursday, 26 August 2004 15:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm trying to drege up titles from my memory of Post-Colonial Lit. class: Krik? Krak!by Edwidge Dandicat, which deals with the flight of refugees from Dominican Republic to Haiti under Trujillo.
Midnight's Children-The division of India.
The Bridge on the Drina, by Ivo Andric, about Yugoslavia.
Julia Alvarez also writes about leaving the Dominican Republic.
The graphic novel "Persepolis" a child's view of revolutions in Iran.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 26 August 2004 15:38 (twenty-one years ago)

There's always Edward Said's "Exiles" - but that is hardly fiction. Still, it is powerful and well-written.

― Tinka, Friday, 27 August 2004 10:44 (twenty-one years ago)

A Distant Shore by Caryl Philips

― Jessa (Jessa), Friday, 27 August 2004 21:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Aleksandr Hemon's 'Question of Bruno' (almost a parody of obscure Balkan literature, but what the hell) and, very recommended, 'Nowhere Man'. He's a Bosnian who was stuck in the US when the war broke out. I had a drink with him once. Nice geezer. Supports Liverpool FC, to the extent of posing in their shirt on the cover of the proof. 'Reef' by Ramesh Guneshekra [sp?] makes some very clever points about how language (or lack of it) can doubly displace the exile. Beautifully written too. (I know I've spelt his name wrong)

― Snotty Moore, Saturday, 28 August 2004 01:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I think there is one by Linton Kweisi Johnson called 'Refugee Bwoy'. I don't know if that's how you spell his name - LKJ.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Saturday, 28 August 2004 09:19 (twenty-one years ago)

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