Somewhere in the Unknown World: A Collective Refugee Memoir

The first chapter tells the story of Irene (formerly Irina), whose Jewish family fled Minsk, Belarus in 1989.

During Christmas of 1988, Irina treasures the bananas her father receives as a Christmas bonus, which her family eats on New Year’s Eve. In the early months of 1989, Irina’s family begins to discuss leaving Belarus for safety reasons. Irina is aware of the threat to Jewish communities: Jewish children have been disappearing from her school for years, and Irina’s father’s family was killed in the Holocaust. When Irina’s mother and father finally decide to leave, Irina considers it an adventure like in The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking, her favorite book. Her mother tells her not to tell anyone about their plans.

On March 20, two days after her birthday, Irina’s family leaves Minsk for Warsaw: like all Jewish families leaving the Soviet Union, they are given 200 rubles and allowed to take two bags. Irina’s family travels to Rome, where they interview for refugee visas. At the meeting, Irina begins to feel horrible cramps: She has started menstruating and feels as if her childhood has ended. Her mother also begins to treat her like an adult, informing her of their plans. The family waits in Santa Marinella, a resort town north of Rome, for three months. Each night, the huge community of Jewish Russian refugees meets on the beach to share news. Irina’s family is eventually accepted into the United States: They decide to go to Minnesota, where Irina’s mother has family. One year after their departure, the family celebrates Irina’s birthday with ripe bananas, surrounded by new friends in Minnesota.

Awo Ahmed knows that her parents love each other: For 20 years, their long-distance marriage has consisted of one phone call each Saturday. Awo’s only memories of the Somalian war return to her in nightmares. In her dream, she is a small child, standing in a bright white courtyard. She hugs a tall, warm palm tree, but is soon chased off by black dogs. Scared, she runs to her aunt, who is wailing in grief. She notices that the adults are staring at an open casket containing her uncle’s body. Awo wakes from the dream in a small room with her two sisters. In the morning, she tells her mother, Maryam, about the dream: Her mother clarifies that it was not a dream, but a memory of her uncle’s funeral in Mogadishu. Awo knows that the memory is painful for her mother, and recalls that she has never seen her mother cry.

Awo remembers chasing her brother on the roofs of Nairobi, Kenya, saving his life when he almost fell. In the years since they have lived in Kenya, Maryam has had two more children. Since her original American visa application is only for three, Maryam decides to leave her two youngest in Africa: One would return to live with their father, and one would live with Maryam’s stepmother. Maryam does not cry after leaving her girls, after arriving in America, or five years later, when the girls are finally able to come to America. Every Saturday, the family calls Awo’s father in Somalia, and Awo feels the warmth of family. As an adult, Awo dreads the loss of her mother, who has been the only constant in her life.

The third chapter is narrated from the first-person perspective of Yara Hassan, whose father is the coach of the Syrian national judo team. Yara’s early years in Damascus are happy: Her family is wealthy and lives in a comfortable apartment surrounded by close friends. When the war comes, it comes quickly, and her family loses electricity and running water. Schools close, and Yara’s family moves into her father’s family’s house in a nicer neighborhood. For the young children, the atmosphere is like a sleepover: For the older children, it is the beginning of adulthood.

One day, while running an errand, Yara is stopped in the street by a soldier who asks for her identification. After studying it, the soldier tells Yara to go home. Yara notices that the adults in her family stop talking about their experiences outside the house. Her parents decide to leave Syria, and the family travels by boat to Egypt. In Egypt, her father leaves the family for the United States, promising to send money and bring them to live with him in six months to a year. Yara remains with her mother and siblings in Egypt for a year before unrest leads them to Ankara, Turkey. Yara enjoys her time in Ankara, but the family struggles to find an apartment and must relocate to Konya, a smaller city. Yara’s father calls every day to tell the family about Minnesota. Her mother grows sick, and Yara learns to navigate the medical system. Three years after her father’s departure, the family is reunited in Minnesota. Yara’s mother, though ill, smiles to see her family all together.

The fourth chapter is narrated by Majra Mucić Gibbons, an aid worker who is herself a survivor of war and displacement. At the age of 23, Majra travels to South Darfur while working for the American Refugee Committee, despite the concern of her parents. At a refugee camp, Majra explains to the camp’s cultural leader that, like the residents of the camp, she too is Muslim and intimately familiar with war.

As a child, Majra lives in Zenica, Bosnia. She is four when the war begins, and often home alone during the day, as her mother works and her father has joined the Army. Her mother teaches her what to do when bomb sirens sound, and how to safely navigate the streets without being spotted by snipers. Her father joins the army in order to protect a Catholic friend who had been drafted, and who he believes would have been killed for his religion. He is gone for long stretches of Majra’s childhood but visits when possible. Majra’s mother often gives her small gifts or letters and pretends that they come from her father. Her mother has five miscarriages during the war as a result of malnutrition.

In 2001, six years after the war ends, Majra and her family are accepted for relocation in Minnesota. They are taken in by another Bosnian family, and soon take in two additional families. Majra attends Macalester College; her freshman convocation speaker is Richard Holbrooke, the man who drafted the peace agreement ending the Bosnian War. Majra believes she is destined to work to restore peace for refugee families.