From Ty McCormick, winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, an epic and timeless story of a family in search of safety, security, and a place to call home.
Growing up in the world's largest refugee camp, nearly every aspect of Asad Hussein's life revolved around getting to America: a distant land where anything was possible. When he was nine years old, his older sister Maryan was resettled to Arizona, but Asad, his parents, and his other siblings were left behind. In the years they waited to join her, Asad found refuge in dog-eared novels—many of them by writers from poor and war-torn countries who had come to the United States and thrived—donated by American charities. Maryan nourished his dreams of someday writing novels like the immigrants before him, but it would be another fourteen years before he set foot in America.
The story of Asad and his family's escape from Dadaab refugee camp in the dry badlands of northeastern Kenya is one of perseverance in the face of extreme adversity. It is also a story of happenstance, of long odds and impossibly good luck, and of uncommon generosity. In a world where too many young men are forced to make dangerous sea crossings in search of work, are recruited into extremist groups, and die at the hands of brutal security forces, Asad not only made it to the United States to join Maryan, but won a scholarship to study literature at Princeton—the first person born in Dadaab ever admitted to the prestigious university.
Beyond the Sand and Sea is an extraordinary and inspiring audiobook for anyone searching for pinpricks of light in the darkness. Meticulously reported over three years, it reveals the strength of a family that never lost faith in America—and exposes the broken refugee resettlement system that kept that family trapped for more than two decades and has turned millions into permanent exiles.
