Between Everything and Nothing: The Journey of Seidu Mohammed and Razak Iyal and the Quest for Asylum

Novelist Meno (Marvel and a Wonder) delivers a suspenseful account of two Ghanaian refugees’ quest for political asylum. Flashbacks reveal 24-year-old Seidu Mohammed and 32-year-old Razak Iyal’s reasons for fleeing Ghana (Mohammed’s illicit bisexuality is discovered; Iyal’s life is threatened by politically connected relatives), their perilous travels through South and Central America to reach the Mexican border, and their detainment after trying to enter the U.S. legally. Facing deportation after their asylum pleas were denied, Mohammed and Iyal met in December 2016 in a Minneapolis bus station and walked for 10 hours across snow-covered fields to apply for asylum in Canada. Meno waxes poetic on patterns of human migration and contrasts America’s melting pot mythology with private prisons that “call into question the ethics of an industry that benefits from an inefficient immigration system.” The book’s most poignant sections reveal just how vulnerable migrants are to the whims of strangers, including the taxi driver who lied to Mohammed and Iyal about how far they were from the border, exposing them to life-threatening frostbite and hypothermia. Meno’s well-written story of survival and friendship puts individual faces on the plight of millions of refugees around the world. Readers will be equal parts outraged and inspired by this novelistic account. (June)