My Name is Samim

This, as the title suggests, is Samim’s story. Samim is thirteen and the book begins with him in an adult detention centre – because he is tall. He has been travelling since he was nine years old and left Afghanistan following the death of his family. His journey has taken him from Afghanistan to Iran to Turkey to Greece to Italy to France and then to the detention centre in the UK. We meet him as the authorities realise he is a child and move him again, this time to a foster home.

Samim’s story is harrowing and desperately sad. From the bombs in Afghanistan and then throughout his long journey he has endured unimaginable trauma and heartache, the loss and the pain he has experienced are beyond awful. And yet the skill of Fidan Meike is to make this a story of hope, friendship and kindness. It is warm, it is funny and it is ultimately hopeful.

The key to this is the voice of Samim which remains childlike throughout. Samim imagines his friend Zayn is with him. Like a ghost, Zayn follows him and interjects and teases and calms him helping him to recite pi and to push forward. Samim tells his own story as he is recounting it to the Home Office official and this means that we never hear his story unless it is in his own voice. And he is a child. A child who loves maths and numbers, who plays chess (amazingly), who makes friends and makes mistakes, who learns to ride a bicycle and who is scared and sad but also willing to see the good everywhere.

In every part of the awful story there is hope and kindness. Whether it’s the cook in Iran who gives the boys a map of the stars and the money to escape or the grandmother at the camp in Greece who adopts the boys and gets them to safety in Italy or the man in Calais who becomes their protector, there is a point on all their journeys which keeps compassion and humanity at the forefront of the book.

The hope is there too in the friendships Samim makes in the UK with others who have had similar experiences and those who have not and there is hope that the next generation can have a perspective and a kindness that could, in the future, mean that children like Samim do not have to endure the unthinkable.

This is a beautifully written and important story which highlights the courage and resilience of children for whom safety is not guaranteed.