F Gby Fabio Geda
In the sea there are crocodiles
Author’s Note
I met Enaiatol ah Akbari at a book presentation where I was speaking about my first novel, the story of a Romanian boy’s life as an immigrant in Italy. Enaiatol ah came up to me and said he’d had a similar experience. We got talking. And we didn’t stop. I never tired of listening to his experiences, and he didn’t tire of dredging them from his memory.
After we’d known each other for a while, he asked me if I would write his story down, so that people who had suffered similar things could know they were not alone, and so that others might understand them better.
This book is therefore based on a true story. But, of course, Enaiatol ah didn’t remember it al perfectly. Together we painstakingly reconstructed his journey, looking at maps, consulting Google, trying to create a chronology for his fragmented memories. I have tried to be as true to his voice as possible, retelling the story exactly as he told it. But for al that, this book must be considered to be a work of fiction, since it is the re-creation of Enaiatol ah’s experience—a re-creation that has al owed him to take possession of his own story. At his request, the names of some of the people mentioned have been changed.
Fabio Geda, Turin 2010
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In the sea there are crocodiles
Content
Afghanistan ................................................................................................................................. 4