The Naked Don’t Fear the Water: An Underground Journey with Afghan Refugees

Journalist Aikins debuts with a powerful account of the “long and dangerous journey” many Afghans take out of their war-torn country. At the center of the story is Omar (a pseudonym), a Sunni Muslim and former interpreter for the American military, who in 2016 took the “smuggler’s road” to Europe after his application for a Special Immigrant Visa to the U.S. was denied. Raised in exile in Iran and Pakistan, Omar was a teenager when his family returned to Kabul in 2002 in the largest repatriation program in U.N. history. By October 2015, however, Afghanistan lay in tatters, with the Taliban back in control of the provincial capital of Kunduz and the U.S. government signaling it was on the way out. Going undercover as a “young Kabuli of modest background,” to join Omar, Aikins characterizes the journey as “mostly waiting punctuated by moments of terror.” He details Omar’s reluctance to leave his Shia Muslim girlfriend and vividly describes roads lined with burned-out buses, overcrowded safe houses where migrants crack grim jokes, and unaccompanied Afghan children “mingl[ing] with the drug dealers and johns” on the streets of Athens. The result is a heart-wrenching portrait of resilience and ingenuity under the most trying of circumstances. Agent: Edward Orloff, McCormick Literary. (Feb.)