FINALIST FOR THE 2020 HILARY WESTON WRITERS' TRUST PRIZE FOR
NONFICTION - A New York Times New & Noteworthy Book - A CBC Best
Nonfiction Book of 2020 - A Globe and Mail Top 100 Book for 2020
"Combining his poetic sensibilities and storytelling skills with a
documentarian's eye, [Heighton] has created a wrenching
narrative."--2020 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction
Jury
In the fall of 2015, Steven Heighton made an overnight decision to
travel to the frontlines of the Syrian refugee crisis in Greece and
enlist as a volunteer. He arrived on the isle of Lesvos with a duffel
bag and a dubious grasp of Greek, his mother's native tongue, and worked
on the landing beaches and in OXY---a jerrybuilt, ad hoc transit camp
providing simple meals, dry clothes, and a brief rest to refugees after
their crossing from Turkey. In a town deserted by the tourists that had
been its lifeblood, Heighton---alongside the exhausted locals and
under-equipped international aid workers---found himself thrown into
emergency roles for which he was woefully unqualified.
From the brief reprieves of volunteer-refugee soccer matches to the
riots of Camp Moria, Reaching Mithymna is a firsthand account of the
crisis and an engaged exploration of the borders that divide us and the
ties that bind.
