Fabio Geda: Immigration Song

In the Sea there are Crocodiles is Fabio Geda's first book to be translated into English and tells the true story of Enaiatollah Akbari' s grueling journey to Italy from Afghanistan.

How did you meet Enaiatollah?

I met Enaiat during a presentation of my first novel, four years ago. In that novel I told the story of a Romanian boy who travels across Europe in search of his grandpa who works as an actor in the street.

The association which invited me to present the book, had also invited a boy who really did travel alone for a long time. In this way the real story of the boy could play as a sort of countermelody to the fictional story I had written. That boy was Enaiat.

That evening, while I was listening to him telling his story, a story so dramatic, so painful, I discovered that he was able to tell it with an incredible lightness, a surprising irony. So I thought it would be nice to put the same lightness, the same irony, in the pages of a book.

Did you know much about similar stories of immigrants?

Yes, I used to work as an educator. I have heard a lot of these stories. Thousands of children every year are forced to travel alone across the world to save themselves from wars and famine and other terrible issues. Many of them die, or still live in difficult conditions. Enaiat is a very lucky and a very strong boy.

Who wanted to tell the story, you or Enaiat?

Both. I wanted the readers to know the incredible story of Enaiat – of course, incredible for a western citizen. Instead, it is a very common life for thousands of boys around the world. And Enaiat wanted to share his experience for the same reason.

Tell us about the process of how Enaiat told his story.

We worked together for nine months. We have spent a lot of time surfing the net, looking for photos, videos and maps of that part of the world.

Then, after a couple of months of research, after he had told me a lot of anecdotes and events, I asked him to start telling it another time and I started writing. Then, Enaiat was involved by continuously reading my words. He read and I recalibrated the sentences and the dialogues. He was my first reader. The real recipient of my book.

How was the book received in Italy?

In a great way. A lot of Italian readers are looking for this type of narrative. Non-fiction novels are windows onto the world. People need windows.

Was it published for children and adults in Italy as it's been done in the UK? It seems an important story for children to read.

A lot of teachers give their pupils this book to read. We have to tell and to share these stories with the next generations. They will do what we couldn’t do – I hope.