Stories are a way of making sense of the world and our place in it. They help us connect with other people and ourselves. 

By reading and listening to stories about refugee experiences, we can deepen our understanding of the impact of forced migration and displacement. 

This Refugee Week, we encourage you to pick a book or listen to a podcast that platforms the stories and perspectives of refugees and asylum seekers. 

Here are some ideas to take part:

Books:

  • Read a book
  • Theme your next book club read and/ or organise a book exchange
  • Work at a bookshop or a library? Curate a book display!

Podcasts & Audio

  • Listen to a podcast episode or audiobook
  • Host a listening party 
  • Do you host a podcast? Produce a Refugee Week special podcast!

Some recommendations:

Books & Magazines
For Children:
Poetry:
  • Bless the Daughter Raised by the Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire
  • Leaving Fingerprints by Imtiaz Dharker
  • I Was Not
Fiction:
  • A Human Being Died that Night Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela
  • All Else Failed by Dana Sachs
  • Assembly by Natasha Brown
  • Asylum Road by Olivia Sudjic
  • A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum
  • Babel by R.F. Kuang
  • By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah
  • Exit West by Mohsin Hamad
  • Iraq+100, edited by Hassan Blasim
  • The World and All That it Holds by Aleksandar Hemon
  • The Beekeeper of Aleppo ​​Christy Lefteri
  • From Another World by Evelina Santangelo
Non Fiction:
  • Asylum Speakers 
  • Child Migrants by Eithne nightingale
  • Conversations from Calais edited by Mathilda Della Torres
  • Dispatches from the Diaspora by Gary Younge
  • Hope Not Fear by Hassan Akkad
  • Map of Hope and Sorrow by Eyad Awwadawnan, Helen Benedict
  • Refugee Heritage by Sandi Hilal, Alessandro Petti
  • The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater
  • The Lightless Sky by Gulwali Passarlay
  • The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri
  • This Hostel Life by Melatu Uche Okorie
  • Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
  • Who Gets Believed? By Dina Nayeri
  • Voices from the Jungle by Calais Writers

Discover A Story is one of nine Simple Acts you can do for Refugee Week 2024. To view them all, visit the Simple Acts page.