A refugee’s tale of hardship and hope
Author Miriam Halahmy was inspired by real events.
ABoy from Baghdad tells the story of a young Jewish refugee. A refugee is someone who leaves their country because they are being unfairly treated or threatened with violence. The book is written by Miriam Halahmy, but parts of it are very similar to what happened to her husband in real life.
In the book, 12-year-old Salman Shasha and his family are forced to leave their home in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1951. They move to Israel, where they live in a camp with other refugees. Arriving in a new country with only a few possessions, life is very tough but everyone helps each other. “It’s very much about how, with the strength of family and friendship, people can overcome the most terrible odds,” Halahmy tells The Week Junior.
Salman’s passion is swimming and his ambition is to win an Olympic gold medal. In Baghdad, he practises in the Tigris, the huge river that flows through the city. After moving to Israel, he suddenly finds himself with nowhere to swim. “There were no swimming pools,” says Halahmy. “He’s not near the sea. He’s never swum in the sea, anyway.” She says Salman’s swimming “threads through this book like the river threads through Baghdad”.
Like Salman, Halahmy’s husband made the journey from Baghdad to Israel, although he was six months old at the time. He lived in a refugee camp with family, says Halahmy. His tent was home to 13 people and there were more tents around where other family members lived. Even after the family left the camp, they still lived very close to each other.
Halahmy feels it is important that there are books, such as A Boy From Baghdad, that tell the stories of Jewish people from different parts of the world. “Every child should be able to see themselves in
a book,” she says.