Aliou: A Novel of the Backway
Description
Aliou's life, in the small Gambian village of his birth, is one of hardship and little hope. Despite his talent for football and his exceptional performance in school, he seems destined to live out his days in the same sort of poverty that his parents had experienced.
After doing well in his exams, Aliou's cousin, Daoudu, persuades him to travel to the city, where he can study on a scholarship and hopefully make something of himself. But things are not all as they seemed to be and the poverty there is not much better than at home. Then, with the sudden death of his father, Aliou is faced with a desperate choice. With no option to continue his studies, and pressure from his love interest's family to marry her without any real prospects, he makes the momentous decision to travel to Italy, where he hopes for a better future.
Facing deceitful smugglers, modern day slavery and a strange land that is as merciless as the poverty he has endured throughout his life, can Aliou ever make it to a better place?
After doing well in his exams, Aliou's cousin, Daoudu, persuades him to travel to the city, where he can study on a scholarship and hopefully make something of himself. But things are not all as they seemed to be and the poverty there is not much better than at home. Then, with the sudden death of his father, Aliou is faced with a desperate choice. With no option to continue his studies, and pressure from his love interest's family to marry her without any real prospects, he makes the momentous decision to travel to Italy, where he hopes for a better future.
Facing deceitful smugglers, modern day slavery and a strange land that is as merciless as the poverty he has endured throughout his life, can Aliou ever make it to a better place?
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