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Between Everything and Nothing book cover
Between Everything and Nothing
The Journey of Seidu Mohammed and Razak Iyal and the Quest for Asylum
2020
First Published
4.27
Average Rating
336
Number of Pages

Joe Meno brings a novelist's eye to the true story of two young men from Ghana and their journey from the unjust political system of their homeland through the chaos of the United States' failing immigration system Based on extensive interviews with Seidu Mohammed and Razak Iyal, Joe Meno's nonfiction debut recounts the harrowing journey of two Ghanian asylum seekers hoping to build a better life in North America. Long before ever meeting by chance at a Minneapolis bus station on December 23rd, 2016, Seidu and Razak had already endured more injustice than most. Forced to flee the inhumane social policies of their native Ghana, both men separately embarked on perilous odysseys that took them through the jungles and bureaucracies of South and Central America. Like countless immigrants before, they arrived at the United States border with high hopes and the reasonable expectation that their worst days were behind them. But instead of finding asylum and the American Dream, Seidu and Razak became trapped in a nightmare as detainees in a private detention facility where a byzantine and cruel plea process stripped them of their humanity and treated them like criminals simply for wanting the chance at a better life. Unable to return to Ghana and with the rise of anti-immigration sentiment extinguishing any lingering hopes for a happy outcome in the United States, Seidu and Razak set their sights on Canada. Crossing the Canadian border would prove to be riskier and more tragic than anything that came before. Seidu and Razak's perilous journey has already received international media attention for the way it typifies the uncaring and exploitative immigration crisis at our southern border and beyond. With this intimate and heartbreaking account, Joe Meno brings to life the horrors of the global asylum industry, adding a much needed personal dimension to one of the greatest humanitarian concerns the world now faces.

Avg Rating
4.27
Number of Ratings
211
5 STARS
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4 STARS
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3 STARS
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2 STARS
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1 STARS
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Author

Joe Meno
Joe Meno
Author · 13 books
Joe Meno is a fiction writer and playwright who lives in Chicago. A winner of the Nelson Algren Literary Award, the Great Lakes Book Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Society of Midland Author's Fiction Prize, and a finalist for the Story Prize, he is the author of seven novels and two short story collections. He is also the editor of Chicago Noir: The Classics. A long-time contributor to the seminal culture magazine, Punk Planet, his other non-fiction has appeared in the New York Times and Chicago magazine. He is a professor in the Department of Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago.
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