This international bestseller is the true story of Enaiatollah Akbari.

     Enaiatollah is the main character of ‘In The Sea There Are Crocodiles’. He lives in a small village in Afghanistan, which he calls ‘Nava’ which means ‘gutter’. In early 2000, Afghanistan falls into Taliban rule. This makes great changes in his life.

     Enaiatollah escapes from his family and home with his mother to the border of Pakistan. Then one night, while his mother is putting him to bed, she tells him three things that he must never do in life: don’t use drugs, don’t use weapons and don’t steal.The next morning, the ten-year-old boy wakes up and finds out that his mother has disappeared. He knows that he is on the border of Pakistan and he is alone.

     Now, starts the remarkable adventure of the ten-year old boy from Afghanistan to Italy to gain political asylum. His five-year journey takes him through Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Greece, border crossings, trekking across bitterly cold mountain pathways for days, and being stuffed into the bottom of a truck.  Going through all these unimaginable hardships and challenges, will he find a place that he will call home? Will he find happiness in the end? Will he find his family?

     His journey searching for a place called home has become the universal bestseller for teenagers. This story based on Enaiatollah Akbari’s actual life has been categorized fiction because in some parts of the story there are fictional details. But it is a really heart wrenching story that you will never forget. The best part of the book is the childlike perspective the author has written. It helps us teenagers to get more engaged with the book more easily. I truly recommend this book to anyone. You’ll never regret it.  

Ye Jin, Year 8