No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison
Read or Download No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison
PRAISE FOR BEHROUZ BOOCHANI AND NO FRIEND BUT THE MOUNTAINSWinner, Victorian Prize for LiteratureWinner, Victorian Premier’s Prize for NonfictionWinner, NSW Premier’s Literary Award: Special AwardWinner, ABIA General Non-Fiction Book of the YearWinner, State Library New South Wales National Biography Award“Behrouz Boochani has produced a stunning work of art and critical theory which evades simple description. At its heart, though, it is a detailed critical study and description of what Boochani terms ‘Manus Prison Theory.’ Traced through an analysis of the ‘kyriarchy’ — a concept borrowed and elaborated on — Boochani provides a new understanding both of Australia’s actions and of Australia itself.Distinctive narrative formations are used, from critical analysis to thick description to poetry to dystopian surrealism. The writing is beautiful and precise, blending literary traditions emanating from across the world, but particularly from within Kurdish practices. The clarity with which ideas and knowledge are expressed is also a triumph of literary translation, carried out by translator Omid Tofighian.Alongside critical thinking and new knowledge production, Boochani describes the people he has met on Manus with a remarkable depth. His choice of naming — of people such as The Blue-Eyed Boy, The Prime Minister, Maysam The Whore, The Cow, and places like The Flowers Resembling Chamomile — ensures that this book offers unique and compelling modes of character-writing. Presented too is a remarkably vivid account of the outrage of experiencing total control: the perpetual queues, the absence of adequate food, the limits on telecommunications, the failing generator, the disastrous toilets.Altogether, this is a demanding work of significant achievement. No Friend but the Mountains is a literary triumph, devastating and transcendent.†— Judges’ Citation, Victorian Premier’s Prize for Nonfiction“A beautiful and powerful piece of writing from detention on Manus Island, where Kurdish refugee Behrouz Boochani has been held for more than six years. The book is an impassioned letter to those who would define Boochani as MEG45, who insist he is nothing more than a number; it speaks to the importance of life writing and of the human need to tell our stories. We come to know Boochani not through his whole life narrative but from the way he survives, his observations of others, and his analysis of the psychological and power structures underpinning the place he calls Manus Prison. All that he has experienced and learnt in his life comes to bear on this book.Boochani describes life on Manus as only an insider can, recounting the shocking tiny details of cruelty, degradation, humiliation and constant surveillance. He finds beauty in strange flowers and the Manusian moon and draws solace from solitude when it can be found. This is compelling storytelling in the samizdat tradition, written in Farsi as a series of text messages sent to his tran
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