No Friend but the Mountains was written largely by text message in the Farsi language from Manus Island Prison by Iranian Kurdish writer, journalist, poet, activist and refugee spokesperson Behrouz Boochani. Behrouz has been a detainee (for the past five years) on Manus Island Prison. He also co-directed the 2017 film Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time.
To avoid his writing being stolen by guards this book was largely thumbed by Behrouz in thousands of text messages on his mobile phones and smuggled to Sydney for a collaborative effort of writing, planning, translation and publication.
Behrouz’s writing convey a truthful first hand experience of what it’s like to be detained on an Australian offshore detention centre. His writing makes the prolonged discomfit, duress and psychological torture he and others have endured since landing on Manus Island very real. Behrouz’s poetry is interspersed throughout the writing . . . at times creating beautiful images of the island and sea but more often highlighting the pain and suffering of individuals there.
The book’s translator Omid Tofighian writes that Behrouz’s main objective is to highlight the systemic torture in Manus Prison. The book is a call to action to move readers and to inspire them to resist the mindset that is driving Australia’s detention regime.
IEU is offering our members a special chance to get a free copy of this book. Email entries to giveaways@ieu.asn.au No Friend but the Mountains in the subject line and your name, membership number and address in the body of the email. All entries to be received by 28 February 2019.
