The sky above me

In the book "The Sky Above Me," the refugee Ali B. describes his childhood and school days, dropping out for financial reasons, child labor in a factory, and the threat to his family from terrorists, presumably the Taliban. He recounts the death of his two siblings at their hands. Ali himself is captured, taken to a miserable camp, tortured, and trained in old weapons and bomb-making. He tries to escape but fails. After being beaten and deprived of food, he is given the task of carrying out an attack with a bomb after a week in a kind of prison. If successful, he is allowed to go home; if not, he and his parents will be killed.

He is taken to the target location with the bomb in a handbag and told to leave the bag with the already ticking bomb in the crowd. An accompanying guard, who keeps a slightly greater distance for safety, informs him two minutes before the planned detonation. Ali pushes his way through the crowd until he can no longer be seen, takes the bomb out of the bag, checks it, destroys the wires with a stone, throws it into a rubbish bin, and flees again. The rest of his escape is then described. He exchanges clothes with a woman and initially hides in a sewage pipe until it gets dark. He manages to warn his parents in time, and the family spontaneously flees to another town in a hurry.

After a few weeks, the parents decide it is best for Ali to flee the country. The father goes into debt to pay the escape helpers. The escape of the underage Ali begins anew and takes several years. In between, Ali works as a seamstress, baker, and waiter. In Turkey, the terrorists track him down again and capture him once more, but he manages to escape again.

The story sheds light on the causes and motives of migrants, the working methods of smugglers and escape helpers, and highlights the different cultures, points of view, and the major challenges faced by refugees in adapting and integrating.