No Friend But the Mountains: A Collection of Writings from Manus Prison

Gulfam H.: I seen some disappointed reviews I don’t Blame them coz they are lucky enough in there life
They didn’t suffer in there life like behroz Buchani and my self I was in Nauru island Australian offshore detention center

United States on Sep 23, 2023

Alain Bissonnette: A must for anyone interested by how exiled people may be treated by some countries.

Canada on Jun 09, 2023

Shar: Some stories are not going to be enjoyable but simply must be told. Boochani’s ‘No Friend But the Mountains:Writing from Manus Prison’ is difficult, oppressive,challenging and, at times, shame-inducing. It is about maintaining dignity and resistance in the face of unjustified and indefinite incarceration. I can only offer my humble thanks to Boochani for raising awareness of a demented post-colonial system and attitude.

Australia on Mar 22, 2023

Diana D: Boochani's account of his time at what he calls Manus Prison (a refugee detention center on Manus Island that is within Papua New Guinea territory, but the detention center was/is under Australian control) is at times lyrical but always harrowing. It is also necessary reading for it highlights conditions and treatment of men like Boochani whose only crime seems to have been wanting to escape terrible oppression and persecution in their own country.

It is a story revealing that still in the 21st century, inhumanity toward those who are "other" is alive and well and thriving. It is a difficult text to get through on several levels: the depiction of both physical and psychological violence and torture on the inmates by those in power; the strategies (often cruel, manipulative, and violent) prisoners felt compelled to engage in against both their incarcerators and each other; and the style of writing that was a mixture of fact, poetic or lyrical passages, metaphor, almost magical or fantastical descriptions, and several passages of what can only be termed fragmented stream of consciousness. BUT it is worth the struggle.

I appreciate very much the note and essay at the...

United States on Feb 26, 2023

Linda: This is a critique of the book and not the man. And perhaps my critique is unfairly based on what I wanted the book to be, rather than what the author wanted to accomplish. I call it a missed opportunity because, if shedding light on the plight of refugees and the unfortunate circumstances many are forced to endure is the goal, the author could have made the book a real tour de force by being more deliberate and vulnerable.

The narrative tries too hard to be poetic and devastating (it doesn’t need to - the facts are harrowing enough), and completely ignores the self as the central actor in this tale, and thus comes off as inauthentic. Which is a shame, because the story IS authentic, but it seems the author isn’t comfortable being vulnerable with his audience, and therefore hides behind style and highly allegorical writing that is purposely built in a way as to leave any and every interpretation open and possible.

There’s a permeating sense of negative pride that keeps the writing from being impactful. (The sense of shame is sadly so prevalent in non-Western cultures.) The author is too proud to not only talk about what is happening to him and how he is coping...

Canada on Jun 21, 2021

saber abbasinasab: While I was reading the book the sense of tiredness with the prose forced me to stop reading, yet I didn’t give up.I resumed rigorously but couldn’t cope with the urge that something is wrong. I felt it from the get going with the way the book was proceeding, but I dared not to question a book being awarded and its translator being praised.
Therefore, I managed to buy the book in its original version-farsi! and started reading it. You would be stunted if I tell you; not only the beauty of the prose is lost but also poor rendering of the wording and grammatical structure in english is beyond imagination.
I love Behrooz and feel his misery-as it is quite tangible throughtout the book. I would give the book a 5 star, the book deserves it,If it wasn’t rendered so incompetent. I wished Mr. Tofiqian had not taken the responsibilty of such a masterpiece without being a highly qualified translator.

United Kingdom on Jul 05, 2020

Kani Xulam: To be fair to him, this was not what Behrouz Boochani wanted to do when he was growing up in Kurdistan, Iran.

But that is pretty much what he is doing right now imprisoned as he is on Manus Island—about 2,000 miles away from the land of his ambitious preoccupation.

Long before that, Boochani was a shepherd in Kurdistan. In 2018, he qualified his former status by telling a visiting photographer: “I am a shepherd who reads Foucault.”

Not to be redundant, he was also a child of war quoting his mother, his first teacher, as an authority on the subject:

“My boy you came into this world in a time of we call flee and flight years.”

The flight was in the direction of Kurdish mountains where Kurds like Boochani’s family fled to escape the constant bombardment by warplanes.

It happened when a dictator, the butcher of Baghdad, decided to attack Iran because he could.

The Kurds, as is often the case in the Middle Eastern conflicts that border Kurdistan, became the casualties of war.

That particular war lasted eight years, consumed one million lives, and ended in 1988.

Boochani grew into his teens in the 90s and...

United States on Apr 23, 2019

Sara Hewitson: Recently, a friend asked me to name favorite books off the top of my head. I listed Narrow Path to the Deep North, The Book Thief, and All The Light We Cannot See.

I now have a fourth.

No Friend But The Mountains, though, has impacted in a way that others haven’t.

Sometimes, I have to stop, breath out, be still, and digest in full what I have just read. Words and phrases from this book are sometimes beautiful, often harrowing - and still now knock me sideways as I go about my day.

It is filled with beautiful storytelling, verse, personal insight. It is artful and poetic, but it is also a narrative exposing the harsh degradation, humiliation and psychological warfare pitted against those incarcerated on Manus. It is shocking, heartbreaking, and makes you want to reach out to pull people away from such an existence and unknown end.

Last year, I visited Sachenhausen in Berlin. The guide had studied Germany’s politician history and spoke with immense insight. He talked of how extremist ideologies and atrocities such as those that happened there didn’t develop overnight. They slowly crept in over a number of years and were progressively...

Australia on Aug 03, 2018