Summary

In vivid language, the author tells of his childhood and the history of his country up to his escape as a 17-year-old, which led from Lebanon to Germany. It is a story of rubber dinghies on the Mediterranean and of inconceivable conditions in refugee camps, of people who become increasingly dependent as they continue to flee and who can only hope to be tried under the rule of law in countries such as Austria or Germany.

But the ordeal is by no means over. Depression, exacerbated by overcrowded rooms in asylum shelters or further cultural disputes between refugees, is just as much a part of everyday life as other "favors" for which so-called helpers apparently cash in.