A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging

Journalist Markham (The Far Away Brothers) blends memoir, history, and reportage in a wide-ranging and unflinching account of Moria, an overcrowded refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos that burned to the ground in September 2020. Sent by a magazine to investigate the 2021 conviction of six Afghans charged with the Moria arson, Markham depicts the trial as biased and unjust (it lasted only 7 hours) and delves into the backgrounds of the convicted youths (three of the six convicts were minors), particularly Ali Sayed, whose grueling journey to Lesbos she traces from Afghanistan. Into this heart-wrenching drama (which includes international efforts to establish credible forensic evidence of the convicts’ innocence for their forthcoming appeal), Markham interweaves ruminations on Greece’s twin crises of immigration and emigration (she notes that “a million refugees had arrived in Greece by sea alone in recent years,” even as more than half a million Greek nationals had emigrated since 2008 due to dismal economic conditions); the mass expulsion of Greeks from Turkey 100 years ago, many of whom also arrived as refugees in Lesbos; the story of her family’s roots as American immigrants from Greece; and the evolution of the U.S. immigration system from the “indignities of Ellis Island” to the present-day asylum process, which incarcerates tens of thousands every day. Interspersed throughout are powerful ruminations on ancient Greece as the birthplace of classical Western ideals and the myth-making process inherent to all migration stories. Readers will be thoroughly engrossed. (Feb.)