The Optician of Lampedusa

<p><b>'Poetically written, absorbing, harrowing' <i>The Times<br><br></i></b><b>'The raw and emotional account of an optician whose family fishing trip suddenly placed him amid the human tragedy of hundreds of drowning migrants is a story that needed to be told' Fiona Wilson, <i>The Times</i><br><br>'An important book ... I cried all the way through' Tracy Chevalier<br><br>From an award-winning BBC journalist, this moving book turns the testimony of an accidental hero into a timeless story about human fellowship and the awakening of courage and conscience.</b><i><br><br>'I can hardly begin to describe to you what I saw as our boat approached the source of that terrible noise. I hardly want to. You won't understand because you weren't there. You can't understand. You see, I thought I'd heard seagulls screeching. Seagulls fighting over a lucky catch. Birds. Just birds.'<br><br></i>Emma-Jane Kirby has reported extensively on the reality of mass migration today. In <i>The Optician of Lampedusa</i> she brings to life the moving testimony of an ordinary man whose late summer boat trip off a Sicilian island unexpectedly turns into a tragic rescue mission.</p> <p><b>'Poetically written, absorbing, harrowing' <i>The Times<br><br></i></b><b>'The raw and emotional account of an optician whose family fishing trip suddenly placed him amid the human tragedy of hundreds of drowning migrants is a story that needed to be told' Fiona Wilson, <i>The Times</i><br><br>'An important book ... I cried all the way through' Tracy Chevalier<br><br>From an award-winning BBC journalist, this moving book turns the testimony of an accidental hero into a timeless story about human fellowship and the awakening of courage and conscience.</b><i><br><br>'I can hardly begin to describe to you what I saw as our boat approached the source of that terrible noise. I hardly want to. You won't understand because you weren't there. You can't understand. You see, I thought I'd heard seagulls screeching. Seagulls fighting over a lucky catch. Birds. Just birds.'<br><br></i>Emma-Jane Kirby has reported extensively on the reality of mass migration today. In <i>The Optician of Lampedusa</i> she brings to life the moving testimony of an ordinary man whose late summer boat trip off a Sicilian island unexpectedly turns into a tragic rescue mission.</p>