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No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison Paperback – 26 November 2019
by Behrouz Boochani (Author), Omid Tofighian (Translator)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars (1,566)
'Our government jailed his body, but his soul remained that of a free man.' Richard Flanagan
In 2013, Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani was illegally and indefinitely detained on Manus Island.
This book is the result. Written on a smuggled mobile phone and translated from Farsi, it is a voice of witness, an act of survival. A lyric first-hand account. A cry of resistance. A vivid portrait through six years of incarceration and exile that - against all the odds - became an award-winning national bestseller.
WINNER OF THE VICTORIAN PREMIER'S LITERARY PRIZE FOR LITERATURE, AND THE PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2019
WINNER OF THE NSW PREMIER'S AWARD 2019
WINNER OF THE ABIA GENERAL NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY AWARD 2019
INAUGURAL WINNER OF THE BEHROUZ BOOCHANI AWARD FOR SERVICES TO ANTHROPOLOGY
FINALIST FOR THE TERZANI PRIZE 2020
LONGLISTED FOR THE COLIN RODERICK LITERARY AWARD 2019
PRAISE FOR NO FRIEND BUT THE MOUNTAINS
'Bears lucid, poetic and devastating witness to the insane barbarity enacted in our name.' Michelle de Kretser
'A poetic, yet harrowing read, and every Australian household should have a copy.' Maxine Beneba Clarke
'A powerful account ... made me feel ashamed and outraged. Behrouz's writing is lyrical and poetic, though the horrors he describes are unspeakable.' Sofie Laguna
'A shattering book every Australian should read.' Benjamin Law
'A magnificent writer. To understand the true nature of what it is that we have done, every Australian, beginning with the prime minister, should read Behrouz Boochani's intense, lyrical and psychologically perceptive prose-poetry masterpiece.' The Age
'An essential historical document.' The Australian
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Australia, New Zealand & Oceania literature
Print length
416 pages
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The weak always consider themselves powerful when they see others suffering. But the collapse of others appeals to the oppressor in all of us. The collapse of others becomes a cause to celebrate our own state.
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This I know: courage has an even more profound connection with hopelessness / The more hopeless a human being, the more zealous the human is to pursue increasingly dangerous exploits.
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Courage is profoundly connected with folly / Battling the waves and continuing on that odyssey would be impossible without foolishness.
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Product description
Book Description
Written in secrecy on a contraband mobile phone from Manus detention centre by journalist Behrouz Boochani, No Friend but the Mountains became the bestselling, award-winning book of 2018.
About the Author
Associate Professor Behrouz Boochani graduated from Tarbiat Moallem University and Tarbiat Modares University, both in Tehran; he holds a Masters degree in political science, political geography and geopolitics.
He is a Kurdish-Iranian writer, journalist, scholar, cultural advocate and filmmaker. Boochani was a writer for the Kurdish language magazine Werya; is Associate Professor in Social Sciences at UNSW; non-resident Visiting Scholar at the Sydney Asia Pacific Migration Centre (SAPMiC), University of Sydney; Honorary Member of PEN International; and winner of an Amnesty International Australia 2017 Media Award, the Diaspora Symposium Social Justice Award, the Liberty Victoria 2018 Empty Chair Award, and the Anna Politkovskaya award for journalism.
He publishes regularly with The Guardian, and his writing also features in The Saturday Paper, Huffington Post, New Matilda, The Financial Times and The Sydney Morning Herald. Boochani is also co-director (with Arash Kamali Sarvestani) of the 2017 feature-length film Chauka, Please Tell Us The Time; and collaborator on Nazanin Sahamizadeh's play Manus.
His book, No Friend But The Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison won the 2019 Victorian Prize for Literature in addition to the Nonfiction category. He has also won the Special Award at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, the Australian Book Industry Award for Nonfiction Book of the Year, and the National Biography Prize. He has been appointed adjunct associate professor in the faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of NSW and visiting professor at Birkbeck Law School at the University of London.
He was a political prisoner incarcerated by the Australian government in Papua New Guinea for almost seven years. In November 2019 Behrouz escaped to New Zealand. He now resides in Christchurch.
Omid Tofighian is an award-winning lecturer, researcher and community advocate, combining philosophy with interests in citizen media, popular culture, displacement and discrimination. He completed his PhD in philosophy at Leiden University, Netherlands, and graduated with a combined honours degree in philosophy and studies in religion at the University of Sydney. Tofighian has lived variously in Australia where he taught at different universities; the United Arab Emirates where he taught at Abu Dhabi University; Belgium where he was a visiting scholar at K.U. Leuven; Netherlands for his PhD; intermittent periods in Iran for research; and in Egypt where he was Assistant Professor at American University in Cairo. His current roles include Adjunct Lecturer in the School of the Arts and Media, UNSW; Honorary Research Associate for the Department of Philosophy, University of Sydney; faculty at Iran Academia; and campaign manager for Why Is My Curriculum White? - Australasia. He contributes to community arts and cultural projects and works with refugees, migrants and youth. He has published numerous book chapters and journal articles, is author of Myth and Philosophy in Platonic Dialogues (Palgrave 2016), translator of Behrouz Boochani's multi-award winning book No Friend but the Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison (Picador 2018), and co-editor of 'Refugee Filmmaking', Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media (2019).
Product details
Publisher : Picador Australia
Publication date : 26 November 2019
Language : English
Print length : 416 pages
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From Australia
Sara Hewitson
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best reads, an incredible book
Reviewed in Australia on 3 August 2018
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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 normalised until people accepted a new status quo and felt compelled to remain quiet.
He left us with three key requests. Firstly, to keep traveling or expose yourself to different cultures so that we may realise and accept we are all very different, yet fundamentally the same.
Secondly, to read - with an appetite that will not sate the desire to continually question and understand.
And thirdly, to speak up. To not do so is to support those who perpetrate human rights atrocities.
The Australian government may have implemented those atrocities against authentic refugees. But I believe it’s our collective legacy.
We all own it - me .. you. We are all responsible for what is happening through our decisions to stay quiet about this new status quo; or choosing otherwise.
Don’t let it be so. Please read this book. And speak up. It takes individual voices to create a chorus. Please let that be our legacy.
24 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful, thought provoking, if a bit long winded.
Reviewed in Australia on 4 September 2020
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Powerful, thought provoking, insightful, if a little long winded at times. From the outset he knew what he was doing was illegal and he could face deportation if caught. The reason why he chose this path of immigrating to Australia is buried and vague. It makes you wonder why an intelligent man chose this path when legal channels were open to him. The dehumanising of detainees is terrible, as is the dislocation of the mindset of all involved. Yet human spirit is amazing and to think this is written in Farsi on a mobile phone makes its origin and journey to publication incredible in itself. Not a page turner, but worth the time spent reading it. Readers should also read American Dirt.
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chrisanthi
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in Australia on 27 February 2025
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Great writing along with bravery and hope. Keeping his head above the water like a lotus flower witnessing the injustices
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Donna Gaynor
3.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment.
Reviewed in Australia on 18 November 2018
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I am not sure why this book did not grab me. It is quite well written (translated) and it is a subject matter that I am interested in yet I have found it difficult to keep on task with reading it. I persevered but it was a tough slog.
6 people found this helpful
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5.0 out of 5 stars The truth about Manus Prison Camp
Reviewed in Australia on 30 October 2018
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An amazing book ! Combining harsh reality with poetical insights. It was both hard to read and impossible to put down. I was drawn into the dispassionate yet incredibly sensitive and compassionate view from Behrouz. Even though I have been actively campaigning for the closure of all offshore detention centres from the beginning, I still learnt a lot and came to much better understand the atrocity, the torture, the systematic demeaning of the refugees. I found it interesting to hear his kinder words about the Papu guards who are also victims of the colonial contempt and abasement by the Australian officers. At least the Papus show compassion and often tried to alleviate some of the suffering, to the best of their ability. I wish all Australians would read this book. I wish all Australians, starting with the politicians, would have had knowledge of what was really going on from the start. If we had, this could never have continued for 5 and a half years. It’s also terrifying to think that the main architect and perpetrator of this dreadful regime, Scott Morrison, is now our Prime Minister. I hope the day will come when he and Peter Dutton are brought before a court and given the rightful humiliation and punishment they deserve.
6 people found this helpful
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Jim KABLE
5.0 out of 5 stars Mirror Reflects Heartless Australia (Looking at Peter Dutton for Starters)
Reviewed in Australia on 2 August 2018
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There are not stars enough to mark this out as the book of the decade - if not the book of the 21st century - because this classic examination from being (still) in the midst of an unholy imprisonment for having done nothing except become an asylum-seeker - will be studied for all the poetic and political and other resonances that Behrouz Boochani has written. It stands with other works treating on the inhumanity of one sector of human beings against those constructed as "other"! Indigenous Australians - still attempting to achieve some sovereignty in the kand stolen from them. Think Erich Maria Remarque Im Westen Nichts Neues - (All Quiet in the Western Front); Ngugi wa Thiong'o - Detained: A Writer's Prison Diary; Wole Soyinka - The Man Died: Prison Notes - and so forth. The foreword and endnotes to Behrouz Boochani's book from his translator are as important as the work itself and all is preceded by a strong introduction from Tasmanian writer Richard Flanagan who like me calls for the gaoling of the monsters who have created the hell in which the Manus Prisoners are incarcerated. Read this book and marvel at the uncrushability of the human spirit shown so soaringly by Behrouz Boochani - a true Living Treasure in the Australian firmament.
9 people found this helpful
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Shar
4.0 out of 5 stars Necessary Storytelling
Reviewed in Australia on 22 March 2023
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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.
One person found this helpful
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J1954
5.0 out of 5 stars Gruelling but essential reading
Reviewed in Australia on 30 August 2019
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The author documents his journeys to get to Australia and there is no room to question the veracity of his story. Manus is another, far worse, story and it makes me deeply ashamed as an Australian at what has been done in my name to stop the boats. What do we have to do to change course? I can’t imagine any of the refugees wanting to come to Australia after being starved, crammed into unsanitary conditions and tortured - but if they do, then let them come and those of us who read this book will do all it takes to get them on their feet mentally and physically. Shame on all politicians who think this is okay. If you have not read the book please do so. It is a revelation.
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rumtytum
4.0 out of 5 stars A new version?
Reviewed in Australia on 11 April 2019
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There are amazing things in this book. Shocking things, eloquently described. It should make any Australian ashamed and angry. But it's too long to attract the wide audience that it needs, and the poetry, which is probably powerful in Kurdish, is not so interesting in English. And there's a lot of poetry. I wish someone would make an abridged edition of the book that could be given to every Australian school child of a suitable age. I wish a poet could recreate the poetry in a way that did it justice. Otherwise Behrouz is talking only to people who are already listening.
4 people found this helpful
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Annie
5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful true account of the horrors of life on Manus Island
Reviewed in Australia on 25 November 2020
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A beautifully written true account of the struggles endured by refugees attempting to seek freedom in Australia and the inhumane treatment they received from the Australian government. A shameful episode in Australian history and unfortunately for the government this talented journalist was there to record it all and send it out in snippets to be published. Thankfully he now lives as a free man in New Zealand but not so many of his fellow detainees were able to enjoy such a happy ending.
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Andrew O'Connell
5.0 out of 5 stars Every Australian should read this
Reviewed in Australia on 17 September 2018
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This is firstly a great work of art. The writing is soaring and beautiful. It is also horrific. Australia's politicians and media have brainwashed enough people to believe that people like Behrouz Boochani are a threat to our "way of life" that we turn a blind eye to the deliberate suffering we are causing. History will take a very dim view of our country and our leaders, but the responsibility lies with all of us. How can we permit this to go on?
3 people found this helpful
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Frank Moore
5.0 out of 5 stars What happened after we stopped the boats?
Reviewed in Australia on 11 January 2019
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I felt as if I had woken up from a bad dream when I finished reading this remarkable book. A man emerges from the sea...Manus Island...kyriarchy...what does it mean? (It’s biblical, it’s my culture)...mango trees...demented, tragic men...robotic guards. The book is one of the many faces of Australia that I didn’t want to know about, and now I do. I shouldn’t forget Behrouz Boochani, but I will suppress his words and images because they’re unbelievably shocking. This book should be a manifesto for a social revolution.
4 people found this helpful
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Leanne Bull
3.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in Australia on 17 November 2023
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A must read
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Dr James Love
5.0 out of 5 stars Racism redeemed
Reviewed in Australia on 14 September 2018
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This book stands as a clear, highly articulate description of the secret violence of racism in Australia - secret in the sense that most white Australians aren't aware that it exists. It combines the story of a terrible sea journey survived but followed by incarceration in a jungle hell-hole, and wonderful, insightful descriptions of the author, his fellow prisoners, the island, and the hideous system created to break them. Anger there is, but warmth and humanity pervade the book.
One person found this helpful
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EmBee
1.0 out of 5 stars Needs a good edit
Reviewed in Australia on 25 August 2022
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It's a shocking story that needs to be told. It is also impressive how the author managed to get this story out via mobile texts and the like. The book does waffle on so ... perhaps this is the outcome of being stuck in the boredom and tedium of detention life. And so for me it was pretty tedious and a struggle to get through. The book would have been a more compelling voice for the plight of people such as the author seeking asylum in Australia if it had a good edit. It would also have engendered more compassion if the author provided more of a back story on his journey out of Iraq and dealt with the question of why he chose Australia and the arduous journey of getting there where he could have had his application process in a UN refugee centre in Europe dealt with more compassionately.
2 people found this helpful
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Kristine Curnow
5.0 out of 5 stars The truth about Australians modern penal colony
Reviewed in Australia on 19 September 2019
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I loved the style of the book written by an inmate at Australias notorious Manus Island detention prison for refugees. Written via mobile phone texts the author conveys in short cameos the real horrors of the deliberate systematic mental torture sustained by the innocent people kept for years on Manus Island as scapegoats and deterrent for would be asylum seekers to Australia
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Boochani, a very special man!
Reviewed in Australia on 3 April 2021
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Totally captivating & horrifying to think that Australia in this age can develop a system of imprisonment, repression & torture as features on Manus Island. Much as I am proud to be Australian & there is so much to be proud of, I am disgusted at the philosophy of our regime.
Jackie
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JD
4.0 out of 5 stars Quick turnaround
Reviewed in Australia on 19 July 2020
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I am very pleased with this transaction, especially the notification of purchase which was immediate; and the subsequent delivery, which was very fast.
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Aliesha
5.0 out of 5 stars Worthy of every award
Reviewed in Australia on 8 November 2020
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It is as good as everyone says. Boochani is a wordsmith and a remarkable observer of life. I wish it could have been different but wishes don’t change what is now a testament to the facts. Everyone should read this.
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DR HARRY R CLARKE
1.0 out of 5 stars Tedious
Reviewed in Australia on 29 December 2018
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This book was described by Robert Manne as the book of 2018. I cannot see that - it is long-winded and self-consciously "poetic" without insight - the poetry and free-verse seems adolescent. although something may have been lost in translation. It has a predictably negative slant that is all-encompassing. It concerns, in the main, his imprisonment on Manus. The author didn't get his wish to gain entry to Australia in advance of those applying for entry officially and decries the system and the "fat stupid Australians" who did this to him. The toilets on Manus are inadequate, the fans break down, his fellow "prisoners" are smelly and selfish, the medical staff are foolish and inadequate and the kitchen staff set out to starve people. Hard going - his specific complaints should be investigated but as we are not told of his history his story of his neglected central want and his refusal to go back to Iran are difficult to assess.
7 people found this helpful
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Andrew W
4.0 out of 5 stars It makes me sad to Australian.
Reviewed in Australia on 26 August 2020
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Makes me sad to be Australian.
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The Grinchess
4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not that good.
Reviewed in Australia on 24 December 2018
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I’m a bit disappointed. Too much poetry and not enough narrative e.g. about why he escaped in the first place.
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Dianne Albiston
5.0 out of 5 stars So much more than I expected
Reviewed in Australia on 25 July 2019
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This book is so much more than a mere description or report of life on Manus. It is a thoughtful and poetic analysis of the system and individuals who are imprisoned there. Highly recommended
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Pen C
5.0 out of 5 stars Compulsory reading
Reviewed in Australia on 9 August 2020
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All Australian politicians should read this book and regret the inhuman treatment of fellow human beings in need of our sympathy and assistance.
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Matthew Vincent
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book !
Reviewed in Australia on 15 October 2020
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Incredible book. How it is written is just so special.
This should be the new staple everyone needs to read.
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Edwina Searle
5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opening.
Reviewed in Australia on 15 August 2021
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Not an easy read but so, so worth persevering with. Every Australian should read it.
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Richard Tewson
5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary, courageous, poetic book.
Reviewed in Australia on 29 September 2020
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Behrouz Boochani's remarkable book gives the shameful reality of the Manus Island detention system and its inhumane treatment of refugees.
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Sue Annear
4.0 out of 5 stars That i could find the book she wanted
Reviewed in Australia on 7 December 2019
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Birthday gift
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Cali
4.0 out of 5 stars Great he tells his story
Reviewed in Australia on 14 October 2018
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Would have liked him to have talked to people with other views also
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Jeffrey Alan Benson
5.0 out of 5 stars Emotive
Reviewed in Australia on 8 September 2018
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Moving story of imprisonment and mental torture at the hands of the Australian Government. Let us hope that the author is eventually freed and can realise his great potential in Australia or elsewhere.
One person found this helpful
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Jayne
5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps add this to high school reading lists.
Reviewed in Australia on 18 January 2021
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An insight into the life of a thinking, sensitive man incarcerated!
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elzabeth warren
5.0 out of 5 stars Every Australian that can read should read this !!
Reviewed in Australia on 1 October 2020
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Compulsory reading ....every page is heartbreaking or horrifying or sad !!!!
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Giulia
5.0 out of 5 stars to read
Reviewed in Australia on 5 March 2021
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so poetic and powerful.
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Lorraine
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing read on such an important issue.
Reviewed in Australia on 6 September 2019
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I thought that the Manus Island issue is an important issue and this was not dealt with in a balanced manner. The author failed to enlist my sympathies or empathy to the issue.
2 people found this helpful
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Dr. Robert F. Tynan
1.0 out of 5 stars Self Absorbed or Refelective?
Reviewed in Australia on 11 March 2023
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Survival prose fitting a journey of survival.
No more, no less.
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Kaz
5.0 out of 5 stars No Friend but the Mountains
Reviewed in Australia on 19 September 2020
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A harrowing and beautiful read.
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Margaret G
5.0 out of 5 stars Deserving of its award.
Reviewed in Australia on 11 July 2019
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An important book detailing the inhumane disaster that is Australia's treatment of refugees.
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Alison
1.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment
Reviewed in Australia on 22 June 2020
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One very long and vitriolic book that I struggled to finish. It will be interesting to do some research for a another viewpoint. The same themes and words were repeated over and over until they lost all meaning and power.
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Colin Baldwin
5.0 out of 5 stars Come on Australia... we can do better
Reviewed in Australia on 5 December 2023
Format: Paperback
Richard Flanagan supplied a forward to this personal account of the contentious failure in off-shore processing and detention of asylum seekers. It says it all:
“Reading this book is difficult for any Australian. We pride ourselves on decency, kindness, generosity and a fair go. None of these qualities are evident in Boochani’s account of hunger, squalor, beatings, suicide and murder.”
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Luke
4.0 out of 5 stars Instagram Review
Reviewed in Australia on 29 December 2019
This book made me feel an absolute rollercoaster of emotions. An autobiographical writing from Boochani’s perspective, translated from WhatsApp messages, gives horrific insights into the incredibly inhumane treatment that he suffered as an asylum seeker within the Australian System. Completed while Boochani was still in captivity (he’s since settled in New Zealand), there were times where the content (which includes multiple strip searches, cage imprisonment and complete status limbo) made me feel utterly ashamed and disgusted. By sharing this story, Behrouz has shared the status and plights of so many others that go unheard. I cannot recommend this book enough.
Check out more reviews on Instagram @myhonestbookreview
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