Between Everything and Nothing, Joe Meno
Between Everything and Nothing, Joe Meno
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Between Everything and Nothing
The Journey of Seidu Mohammed and Razak Iyal and the Quest for Asylum

Author: Joe Meno

Narrator: Dion Graham

Unabridged: 8 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/02/2020


Synopsis

Joe Meno brings a novelist's eye to the true story of two young men from Ghana and their journey from the unjust political system of their homeland through the chaos of the United States' failing immigration system

Long before their chance meeting at a Minneapolis bus station, Ghanaian asylum seekers Seidu Mohammed and Razak Iyal had already crossed half the world in search of a new home. Seidu, who identifies as bisexual, lived under constant threat of exposure and violence in a country where same-sex acts are illegal. Razak's life was also threatened after corrupt officials contrived to steal his rightful inheritance. Forced to flee their homeland, both men embarked on separate odysseys through the dangerous jungles and bureaucracies of South, Central, and North America. Like generations of asylum seekers before, they presented themselves legally at the U.S. border, hoping for sanctuary. Instead they were imprisoned in private detention facilities, released only after their asylum pleas were denied. Fearful of returning to Ghana, Seidu and Razak saw no choice but to attempt one final border crossing. Their journey north to Canada in the harsh, unforgiving winter proved more tragic than anything they had experienced before.

Based on extensive interviews, Joe Meno's intimate account builds upon the international media attention Seidu and Razak's story has already received, highlighting the harrowing journey of asylum seekers everywhere while adding dimension to one of the greatest humanitarian concerns facing the world.

About Joe Meno

Joe Meno is a fiction writer and playwright who lives in Chicago. He is a winner of the Nelson Algren Literary Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Great Lakes Book Award, and a Story Prize finalist. His short fiction has been published in several magazines, and broadcast on NPR. His nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times and Chicago Magazine. He is an associate professor in the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Will

What do you do when you have nothing left? Nowhere to go? What kind of person are you forced to become? --------------------------------------- ...among the cacophony of so many different languages, so many different cultures, the pervading distance, the relentless uncertainty, all of it made clea......more

Goodreads review by Erica

#partner Thank you to @counterpointpress for the free review copy of this book. - "Over and over again, Razak was forced to confront the same inequities, the same police corruption, the same blunt use of power that he had traveled thousands of miles to escape. Once more he had been rendered voiceless,......more

Goodreads review by Elena

[4,5/5 stars] BETWEEN EVERYTHING AND NOTHING centers around the journey of two Ghanian asylum seekers - Seidu Mohammed and Razak Iyal- as they hope to build a better life in North America. This true story is tragic and heartbreaking. From diving into Ghana and following its culture, politics, corrupti......more

Goodreads review by Lilly

"You can live in a free country, but you are not truly free unless you have the opportunity and financial means to express that freedom." Thank you to Counterpoint Press for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Seidu Mohammed and Razak Iyal both endured unimaginable struggl......more