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Asylum Seeker Narratives

(Status : Public)
Coordinated by AustLit UQ Team
  • This page lists novels, short stories and children's books that have asylum seekers as a central theme.

  • Farewell, My Pashtun

    image of person or book cover
    This image has been sourced from online.

    'When Faisal, an Afghani from the Pashtun tribe, begins attending Michael Farril’s English as a Second Language class, Michael has every reason to be terrified. This Faisal has all the external signs of being a Muslim extremist and a potential terrorist. However, as Michael gets to know Faisal, he realises that things aren’t what they originally seemed. Eventually a very strong friendship develops between these two men. In doing so, each man has to adjust his thinking to the other’s beliefs and outlooks on life.

    (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • Fish from the Sky

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    This image has been sourced from online.
    'Fish from the Sky follows Lara Jaq, a young Sudanese woman, as she travels through the gates of a refugee camp into a surreal world where fish fall to the earth and nothing seems to go right - until she gives up on waiting for things to happen...' (From back cover). (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • The Haha Man

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    This image has been sourced from online.

    'In a marketplace in Afghanistan, a son watches his father die at the hands of the Taliban. Karim Mazari knows he must flee his homeland if he is to have any chance of survival, but at a time of international uncertainty and terror, compassion can be hard to find. But a passport and a ticket to Australia can be bought...'

    Source: Publisher's blurb.

    (...more)
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  • The Infernal Optimist

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    This image has been sourced from online

    'Capturing the voice of an Australia you haven't heard in fiction before ... Meet Zeke Togan, a small-time crim in big-time trouble. A quintessential Australian larrikin - whose biggest problem is that he isn't actually Australian. 19 year old Zeke was born in the Old Country but has been in Australia since he was six months old and considers himself as Aussie Aussie Aussie oi oi oi as the next bloke. But due to a mix-up at the naturalisation ceremony (Zeke was in the pub when the rest of his family were getting their certificates and sprigs of wattle) and some unfortunate brushes with the law, Zeke finds himself awaiting deportation from Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre.

    (...more)
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  • In the Same Boat

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    This image has been sourced from online.

    'A disparate group find themselves in the close confines of a boat escaping a conflict zone. Will a series of unfortunate events precipitate disaster on them before nature unleashes a savage storm? Only time will tell as they race inexorably toward their destiny.'

    Source: Publisher's blurb.

    (...more)
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  • Mahjar: A Novel

    Zein, Farhan, Rayya and their circle are migrants of the fifties, yearning for both their future and their past. Their children, Salah, Rima, Hussein and their friends are young Australians with a distinctive voice and place succeeding or failing in the clash between generations, struggling for independence in the face of their parents' hopes and dreams. Abd al-Rahman is an Iraqi refugee who has lost everything. And Ali, Ahmad, Akram and Yusuf are children in Palestine and Baghdad who have no future, but whose stories soar. (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • The Marsh Birds

    image of person or book cover
    Cover image courtesy of publisher.
    'Dhurgham As-Samarra'i is a twelve-year-old boy, the youngest child in a middle-class Baghdadi family. He finds himself at the Great Mosque in Damascus in Syria, not knowing what has happened to his parents and sister who fled Baghdad with him. The only thing he knows is that he was told that if the family became separated they were to meet at the Mosque. Alone, he waits and waits. This is the story of what befalls Dhurgham after he realises his family won't be turning up; it is the story of his journey into adulthood, his journey through bitterness to forgiveness, and his journey from Iraq to Syria, to Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and beyond. (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • Nights in the Asylum

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    This image has been sourced from online.

    'Set in a mining town in the Australian outback, Nights in the Asylum is the story of three people seeking shelter. Stricken with grief and guilt following the death of her daughter, Miri flees the city for the quiet calm of Havana Gardens, a once fine but now dilapidated mansion built for her grandmother. On the road, she rescues Aziz, an Afghan refugee on the run from detention; then, in the attic of the old house, Miri discovers Suzette Moran and her baby daughter hiding, and grants them refuge.

    (...more)
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  • Papers of Linda Jaivin (Manuscripts; including notes on her novel, Dead Sexy)

    MS Acc07/18 comprises research material, drafts and correspondence relating to Jaivin's writing projects, and some published editions of books (4 archive cartons, 1 small box).

    Includes notes on her novel Dead Sexy, set in the Villawood Detention Centre.

    Find library holdings here.

  • Prohibited Zone

    image of person or book cover
    Image courtesy of publisher's website.
    'Steve West, mining engineer and ex-footy star, just wants a dirty weekend in town, but he can't stop people telling him their secrets. When crusading Kara incites a breakout in the desert, Westie finds himself her reluctant accomplice. Soon he's got a runaway asylum seeker in tow, and all the world, it seems, on his tail. ...' (publisher website). (...more)
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  • Raki: A Novel

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    This image has been sourced from online.

    Raki (which means rope) is set in Australia and Bosnia and deals with issues of black and white relations, ethnic conflict and multi-culturalism. Gara is an Aboriginal youth who is adopted by a Yugoslav family and taken bak to Bosnia. Caught up in the conflict there, he returns to Australia, only to end up in jail, where he hangs himself. (Source: Koori Mail Ed. 85 21 Sept. 1994)

    (...more)
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  • The Tyrant's Novel

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    Trapped behind barbed wire in an alien land, a man used to guarding his secrets is compelled to set the record straight. Imagine a faraway country that was once a friend of the West becoming the enemy, its people isolated and savagely repressed by a tyrant known as Great Uncle. As one of the country's most celebrated writers and a war hero, the storyteller has a better life than most, until he is made an offer he can't refuse. He must write a great novel, telling of the suffering of his people under the enemy's cruel economic sanctions and portraying Great Uncle as their saviour. (...more)
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