“An epic hike in the refugee trail”
“Sinziana Ravini: Daniel Yousefi will close skuggtillvaron in the union pending”
“When flyktingvågorna began to wash over Europe in the summer of 2015 opened many hearts wide open. But for how long? Who cares about the refugee crisis today? Each year, 3 000 people their lives in the Mediterranean sea, and each year thousands of people return home again after having been standing, and begging for a little compassion at Europe’s walls. Pictures and reportageberättelser have a short lifetime. What we need are the stories that penetrate beyond the bildytans treacherous presence.”
“Now they are here. Daniel Yousefi has just come out with The eighth continent, an Italo Calvino-scented book about a place that does not exist, but where millions of people are on the run anyway, in anticipation of a new life. The invisible cities to leave place for the invisible people, for it is not that they are being photographed as we see them. Pictures numb. But Yousefis writing raises!”
“nYousefis poetic mikroberättelser if the people who got stuck in southern Europe transitläger the spring and summer of 2016 takes to start a photographic perspective. The tone is lapidarisk, written with a camera lens chilly calm: ”In a solpöl is a child u002Fu002F covered by hundreds of flies u002Fu002F modern sitting frånvänd next u002Fu002F with the swollen face”. And further on: ”a woman says u002Fu002F that she should go and drown herself in the sea now u002Fu002F prefer the sea than to return home.’”
“Sometimes it is as if Camus alienated Meursault in the Stranger slipped into the narrator’s body, which at times seems to be difficult to feel anything in his work as a volunteer. I see it more as a stylistically grip, than a work related injury, but who knows?”
“One of the constantly recurring elements is the silence. The only language these people have left, when words are not enough anymore, when a couple of men sitting and looking quietly at his nedbombade city, on the tv.”
“the Refugee’s existence eventually becomes a skuggtillvaro in a purgatory between heaven and hell, some may survive on a roll of crackers on the day. A single father is selling a night of their ten-year daughter to the highest bidder. Some mothers are selling their bodies.”
“nOch what is the cost of a life? 400 euros. For 400 euros, you can get over the sea, if you are lucky. ”We are just living corpses,” it says on a protestskylt. ”People will look back on this in the same way as they did with the Holocaust, don’t you think?” asks one person. ”A whole generation that just melt in the sun … And society does not even here anymore.” When Angelina Jolie arrive at the camp, it is more like a mirage than something that seriously changes things.”
“Sometimes sway the eyes quickly between the stories, but it is also what gives them a sense of claustrophobia, and seized with a panic helplessness.”
“nJag can only hope that the Yousefi will continue their epic trek into the diasporans dark hearts, and that this was just a prelude to what’s to come.”
“” The eighth continent”
“Albert Bonniers förlag”
