No Friend But the Mountains

A stateless Kurdish-Iranian asylum-seeker detained by the Australian government won the country's highest-paying literary prize on Thursday. But he could not attend the festivities to accept the award. Behrouz Boochani, a writer, journalist and filmmaker who has been held in offshore detention on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea for more than five years, won the 2019 Victorian Prize for Literature for his book, No Friend but the Mountains . . . Typically, only Australian citizens or permanent residents are eligible for the award. But an exception was made in Mr. Boochani's case because judges considered his story an Australia story, said Michael Williams, the director of the Wheeler Center, a literary institution that administers the award on behalf of the state government. 'We canvassed the critical and broader literary reception of the book, and we made our decision on that basis, ' Mr. Williams said. 'This is an extraordinary literary work that is an indelible contribution to Australian publishing and storytelling.-- New York Times As war, crime, famine, and civil disruption result in growing numbers of asylum seekers, Boochani's deeply disturbing memoir introduces readers to hard realities and reveals the wounded hearts of captors and prisoners alike.-- Foreword Reviews Boochani tapped his book out in text messages to his friend Omid Tofighian, who translated the book from Persian. Before the book was published, Boochani filmed a movie, Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time, which was shot in secret, on his cell phone. He has written many articles and essays for Australian and international media. He now holds a non-resident appointment at the University of Sydney. In a different place, or at a different time, these professional recognitions, to say nothing of his many literary awards, would have signalled that Boochani is integrated into Australian society, and valued by it. But Australia's extreme anti-immigrant turn, which preceded that of the United States by several years, has created a stark disjuncture between what the culture values and what the state allows. In an era when simply being a person in need of international protection makes a man a criminal, he cannot live in the society that has showered him with praise.--Masha Gessen The New Yorker No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison is an extraordinary insight into the life of several hundred men held in offshore prisons under the Australian policy of immigration detention.-- Los Angeles Review of Books The winner of Australia's richest literary prize did not attend the ceremony. His absence was not by choice. Behrouz Boochani, whose debut book won both the $25,000 non-fiction prize at the Victorian premier's literary awards and the $100,000 Victorian prize for literature on Thursday night, is not allowed into Australia. The Kurdish Iranian writer is an asylum seeker who has been kept in purgatory on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea for almost six years, first behind the wire of the Australian offshore detention centre, and then in alternative accommodation on the island. Now his book No Friend but the Mountains -- composed one text message at a time from within the detention centre -- has been recognized by a government from the same country that denied him access and locked him up.-- Guardian