The Crossing

At the beginning of this verse novel Samuel and Natalie live far apart both in distance and experience, Sammy in war-torn Eritrea and Nat in Dover. They each have their own personal crises to face. Natalie’s family is coming apart after the death of her mother and Sammy is on the brink of setting off on the refugee trail after his sister has been taken to a prison camp and his father murdered by the authorities. But their fates are linked, something cleverly conveyed by Manjeet Mann as Nat and Sammy unknowingly share thoughts and feelings in each verse: the same cry of pain or hope echoing between them and bookmarking their personal narratives. Gradually, what separates them narrows. Sammy makes his difficult and dangerous way out of Africa and across Europe, exploited by people smugglers and losing friends and companions in brutal circumstances. Natalie takes on her mother’s challenge of swimming the English Channel and discovers her brother Ryan has become part of a far-right group whipping up hatred towards migrants and responsible for an attack on a classmate. Finally, Nat and Sammy are on either side of the Dover straits: he in a Calais refugee camp; she on the beach ready to swim, raising money for refugees. They are exchanging e-mails and they narrowly miss one another when Nat has been volunteering at the refugee camp. On Sammy’s side, this is a truly harrowing tale, well-researched and pulling no punches in describing his plight. For Nat, it is a tale of finding a cause for which she is ready to stand up and be counted. Both are strong characters, driven by love and hope. Manjeet writes with understanding, passion, and a conviction that all our fates are inevitably bound together. She has faith in the power of young people to make a difference, and an equally unflinching eye for what we may inflict on one another through greed, fear and indifference.