Author(s): Sue Farrell Holler
Format: Hardback
No. of Pages: 288
Publisher: GROUNDWOOD BOOKS
Language: English
Date Published: 2019-03-01
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Hakim lives behind the safe walls of his family's compound in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He has a good life. His father is an important man, Hakim goes to the best school in the city, his mother and older sisters keep him fed and cared for. He and his beloved brother, Sharif, can spend their time playing soccer, racing chickens and spying on the guests -- as long as they stay away from the sharp horns of their mother's favorite cow, and avoid their father's fiery temper.

When rebel forces take over the capital, life becomes more complicated. Hakim's father's cousin takes him to live in the former imperial palace, and Hakim becomes the most favored son. His father takes him with him when he gives political speeches and distributes leaflets. It is all very exciting, even if Hakim doesn't know what the leaflets actually say.

And then suddenly his father is arrested, and Hakim's own life is in peril. His mother sends him into hiding in her father's village, until even that is too dangerous. Hakim is put in the care of a human smuggler and embarks on an uncertain, confusing and terrifying journey through Kenya, Europe, and finally to Canada, where he is put on a Greyhound bus with ten dollars and instructions to stay on the bus until someone tells him to get off. You are safe now, says the smuggler. You are in Canada. This country will protect you.

And so begins his new life in North America, sheltered for a while by fellow expats, threatened by the authorities, shunted from a group home to foster care. He goes to school, he makes friends of sorts, but he is plagued by a deep sense of malaise, wondering whether he will ever know what has happened to the family he left behind.

At times stranger than fiction, Hakim's story is true, told by Alberta writer Sue Farrell Holler after hundreds of hours of research and interviews with the real "Hakim," who continues to hide his identity because of fears for his family, most of whom remain in Ethiopia.