Butterfly

From Refugee to Olympian, My Story of Rescue, Hope and Triumph

Rating 4.7
10h 1min
bookCoverFor

Description of book

"Being a refugee is not a choice. Our choice is to die at home or risk death trying to escape." - Yusra Mardini

Yusra Mardini fled her native Syria to the Turkish coast in 2015 and boarded a small dinghy full of refugees bound for Greece. When the small and overcrowded boat's engine cut out, it began to sink. Yusra, her sister and two others took to the water, pushing the boat for three and a half hours in open water until they eventually landed on Lesbos, saving the lives of the passengers aboard.

Butterfly is the story of that remarkable woman, whose journey started in a war-torn suburb of Damascus and took her through Europe to Berlin and from there to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Yusra Mardini is an athlete, one of People magazine’s twenty-five women changing the world, a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador and one of Time Magazine’s thirty most influential teens of 2016.

Narrator:

Format:

Length Audiobook:

10h 1min

Language:

English

Published:

5/3/2018

Publisher Audiobook:

Pan Macmillan

ISBN Audiobook:

9781509884674

What other people think

Reviews of Butterfly

The book is a great example of how refugees are, not what people picture them to be. The story of young person trying to pursue their dreams and fight for their rights in living. I can’t even start to imagine how it must have felt, loosing one’s home, friends, family, country and huge part of the personal identity. I am grateful for people like Yusra that could inspire others especially the youth and even more specifically the youth from immigrant backgrounds. Now to the writing. It was simple and easy to follow. It was clear and the events kept in clear order and told in realistic way. It was not boring as the storyline kept moving forward. Is it a masterpiece? No! It misses depth and creativity. But we need to remember it is written be such a young person. That alone it’s inspiring. Narrator has the perfect voice and accent for this book!

Nora Cassandra