Seeking Refuge – A Special Event About Migration

ABOUT THE BOOKS 

“MY FOURTH TIME, WE DROWNED Seeking Refuge On The World’s Deadliest Migration Routes”.  By Sally Hayden

The Western world has turned its back on refugees, fuelling one of the most devastating human rights disasters in history.

My Fourth Time, We Drowned follows the shocking experiences of refugees seeking sanctuary, but it also surveys the bigger picture: the negligence of NGOs and corruption within the United Nations; the economics of the twenty-first-century slave trade and the EU’s bankrolling of Libyan militias; the trials of people smugglers; the frustrations of aid workers; the loopholes refugees seek out and the role of social media in crowdfunding ransoms. Who was accountable for the abuse? Where were the people finding solutions? Why wasn’t it being widely reported?

What the Press and People say about My Fourth Time, We Drowned …

‘Journalism of the most urgent kind’
Financial Times

‘The triumph of the book is to inject a renewed urgency and moral clarity into a story most people think they are familiar with’
The Times

‘[A] devastating, moving and damning account of one of the tragedies of our age … Hayden never flinches in documenting human nature at its worst – its best is shown here, too’
Irish Independent

‘The most important work of contemporary reporting I have ever read … I hope that Sally Hayden’s work can help to begin a radically new and overdue discussion about Europe’s approach to migration and borders’
Sally Rooney

‘What a devastating book about the catastrophic inhumanity of European migration policy. It’s a journalistic masterpiece. Shattering stories. It absolutely demands to be read … Essential’
Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers

‘Compassionate, brave, enraging, beautifully written and incredibly well researched. Hayden exposes the truth’
Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland

‘One of the most important testaments of this awful time in life’s history. It is both heartbreaking and stoic’
Edna O’Brien, author of ‘The Little Red Chairs’, ‘Girl’ and’ The Country Girls’

‘A veritable masterclass in journalism … The most riveting, detailed and damning account ever written on the deadliest of migration routes’
Christina Lamb, Chief Foreign Correspondent of the Sunday Times

‘Heart-stopping … A vital book for anyone who wants to feel what it means to be human in the 21st century’
Fintan O’Toole, author of ‘We Don’t Know Ourselves’

My Fourth Time, We Drowned is Published by Harper Collins. 

“THIS HOSTEL LIFE” – tells the stories of migrant women in a hidden Ireland.   By Melatu Uche Okorie

This Hostel Life tells the stories of migrant women in a hidden Ireland.

From a day in the life of women queuing for basic supplies in an Irish direct provision hostel to a young black woman’s depiction of everyday racism in Ireland, her nuanced writing shines a light on the injustice of the direct provision system and on the insidious racism experienced by migrant women living in Ireland. A third story, set in a Nigeria of the past, tells of a woman’s life destroyed by an ancient superstition and her fierce determination to carry on, a quality Okorie believes is universally shared by women. The collection includes a fascinating essay by Liam Thornton (UCD School of Law) explaining the Irish legal position in relation to asylum seekers and direct provision. Melatu Uche Okorie was nominated for Newcomer of the Year at the 2018 An Post Book Awards.

What the Press and People say about ‘This Hostel Life’…

‘A marvellous book and a wonderful writer’ Sebastian Barry

 ‘These stories are vitally important. I loved them’  Marian Keyes

‘Fresh, devastating stories . . . Okorie writes with uncomfortable clarity about things we think we already know. She takes us to places we might not want to go within ourselves and to worlds we haven’t seen before in Irish writing’ Lia Mills

“Melatu Uche Okorie has important things to say – and she does it quite brilliantly. Her language is arresting and inventive, and very entertaining’ Roddy Doyle

‘A landmark book by an important new voice in Irish writing; these are the stories we need to read.’ Emilie Pine

‘This Hostel Life is published by Skien Press