Previously published as Nujeen

The story that is inspiring the world.

Read about Nujeen who escaped the hell of war in Aleppo and travelled to Europe in a wheelchair.

'She is our hero. Everyone must read her story. She will inspire you' - MALALA YOUSAFZAI

Nujeen Mustafa has cerebral palsy and cannot walk. This did not stop her braving inconceivable odds to travel in her wheelchair from Syria in search of a new life. Sharing her full story for the first time, Nujeen recounts the details of her childhood and disability, as well as the specifics of her harrowing journey across the Mediterranean to Greece and finally to Germany to seek an education and the medical treatment she needs.

Nujeen's story has already touched millions and in this book written with Christina Lamb, bestselling co-author of 'I Am Malala', she helps to put a human face on a global emergency.
Trapped in a fifth floor apartment in Aleppo and unable to go to school, she taught herself to speak English by watching US television. As civil war between Assad's forces and ISIS militants broke out around them, Nujeen and her family fled first to her native Kobane, then Turkey before they joined thousands of displaced persons in a journey to Europe and asylum. She wanted to come to Europe, she said, to become an astronaut, to meet the Queen and to learn how to walk.

In her strong, positive voice, Nujeen tells the story of what it is really like to be a refugee, to have grown up in a dictatorship only for your life to be blighted by war; to have left a beloved homeland to become dependent on others. It is the story of our times told through the incredible bravery of one remarkable girl determined to keep smiling.

About the Author

Christina Lamb is Chief Foreign Correspondent at The Sunday Times. She has since been awarded Foreign Correspondent of the Year five times as well as Europe's top war reporting prize, the Prix Bayeux and was recently given the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award by the Society of Editors. She is the bestselling author of ten books including Farewell Kabul, The Africa House, and The Sewing Circles of Herat and co-wrote the international bestseller I am Malala with Malala Yousafzai and The Girl from Aleppo with Nujeen Mustafa. Her last book Our Bodies, Their Battlefields won the first Pilecki Institute award for war reporting and was shortlisted for Britain's top non-fiction award, the Baillie Gifford Prize, as well as the Orwell Prize and the New York Public Library Bernstein award. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, an Honorary Fellow of University College Oxford and was made an OBE in 2013.

Reviews

'The story of Nujeen, amazing young woman and Syrian refugee, reminds the world that refugees, just like others, have aspirations and dreams for peace, education and a better society. Nujeen inspires me to dream without limits'
MALALA YOUSAFZAI

'Spirited and humbling, and is proof that a refugee is a person first, a statistic last', Books of the Year, Sunday Times

'Extraordinary. We have heard many accounts of refugees' journeys in the past couple of years but none like this one. If it was Lamb who wrote the words, you sense it is Nujeen's spirit she has caught. The is important chronicle of our strange and terrible times seems likely, in fact, to make her a star' The Times

'THE GIRL FROM ALEPPO is a book about a truly remarkable disabled young girl refugee from Syria. I read it in 24 hours - without a dry eye. Not tears of sadness - tears of joy about the glory of a triumphant human spirit. Go on. I challenge you. I bet you cannot read this, dry eyed, to the end' PADDY ASHDOWN

Book Information
ISBN 9780008192815
Author Nujeen Mustafa
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint William Collins
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
Weight(grams) 310g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 25mm