Between the Sand and Sea is a beautifully written story of Asad, a young man born in one of the world largest refugee camps, and his family's long struggle to surmount the obstacles standing between them and a better life. This book focuses on many things: a separated family, the love between siblings, the trials of refugee life and the obstacles to immigration. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it. Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for the advanced copy in return for my honest review.

This book had me feeling joyous, despondent, grateful, and enraged. Reading about the struggles and sacrifices Asad’s family endured as refugees was deeply powerful. You think you “get it” when you envision what the circumstances must be like to flee your home, but nothing prepared me for witnessing the tenacity displayed by Asad and his family through every hurdle imaginable and more. And even after reading this I know I still could never understand their full story and my heart aches for the millions of untold stories of families enduring similar, or even worse, hardships. Because this is a true and ongoing story it isn’t yet finished. Time will tell what happens to these individuals and my heart aches for the future trials they may have to endure because of gatekeeping democracies and corruption within the very institutions tasked with helping them. Thanks to netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The odds of leaving Dadaab refugee camp, the largest in the world, are very low for the Hussein family. But when daughter Maryan is settled in Arizona leaving the rest of the family behind, the saga of their eventual escape is daunting and ultimately uplifting. Poignant and unforgettable, this is worth the read.

I thought Beyond the Sand and Sea: One Family's Quest for a Country to Call Home by Ty McCormick was a pretty good read. Four stars.

This was a fantastic book that is based on a true story of Asad Hussein and his family. We go through their life as they fled war-torn Somalia and end up at the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya. We see their turmoil, perseverance, and hope to one day go to the United States, the land of dreams. Asad tries his best to continue his studies, despite the ongoing chaos around him, to ensure that he lives a good life in the U.S. What a journey it has been to journey from this camp to studying at Princeton University. The author has done a great job bringing his story to life.

A fantastic eye-opening read, a perfect reminder, in today's climate, a reminder we are all here trying to get by. That is pure luck, or God's grace if you call it that, that you are born where you were. The color you are....it was not your choice.
Beyond the Sand and Sea is a ray of light in an immigrant family's quest for a better life. A better life we can too easily take for granted.
Asad and his family are refugees we meet at the Dadaab refugee camp. From there they are in constant movement to find a better place, and somedays to just find clean water. Asad wants to be a scholar, and all I could think of were the people I knew who dropped out of school because "it wasn't for them". The family faces two steps forward and one step back too many times and then there comes the inevitable stories we hear too often of families needing to separate.
I think stories like this should replace novels such as "The Hobbit" as required reading in High school.
The biggest takeaways...people never lose hope, no matter what life throws at them, we are all just people, and no one ever asked for their country to be an unliveable trash heap of governmental wars in the first place.

Beyond the sand and sea, it is the true story of Asad Hussein and his family, it was not an easy life, they were living in a refugee camp for a very long time, more like most of their lives, feeling like they didn't belong anywhere, the conflict in Somalia was getting worst, so they had to keep living in this camp for many many years.

Asad was a very brilliant boy since he was just a kid, he wanted to study and become someone, not just another nameless boy from a camp that didn't offer any hope or future at all. He was determined to study and find a way to get out of that life so we get to learn and walk through many obstacles and people that not only were unkind and selfish but destroyed many lives and many dreams with their own selfish behaviors.

Ajay Sood and Antonia Sood, both are working as Trustees and founders of the Beacon Scholarship, a scholarship that helps many boys and girls to have a better future but in Asad Case, it was totally the opposite, I really felt they behave terribly at the end. when they first met Asad they were very kind and supportive but everything turned out for the worst and we really got to meet their true colors as soon as Asad got a scholarship from another university that was not affiliated with them.

Ajay behaved like a petulant child, you don't act that way if you supposedly understand what these people are going through, you don't act and feel hurt if someone who has zero opportunity in life is giving the chance of a lifetime. This was a miracle for christ's sake and the guy was acting all hurt because he wasn't informed about Asad's plans. if you knew the life Asad lived, if you knew how hard he was working to find a better place to live, how come you have the nerve to feel hurt? how come you care more about your feelings besides swallow your pride and support a young boy that was finally getting his dreams to come true? but in the end, these people care more about their projects than really seeing these boys succeed in life.

so glad the author of the book show us the real names and institutions that are not doing anything, I will never trust blindly ever again.

in Beyond the sand and sea we get to walk each step Asad had to take to be able to move forward and save himself, his life, and even the life of his entire family, we also get to meet Maryan another great character of this book, the sister of Asad she was also a very huge key in this story, she suffered so much with her family even if they were all separated at one point, she was working so hard to save everybody, she is a true heroine and a true goddess, Maryam you deserve so much and I hope life repays you for all the love and hard work you have done.

Beyond the sand and sea, will open up your eyes to what is happening in this world, you will learn many outrageous things from institutions that we supported and trust such as UNHCR, IOM only to feel betrayed by their system so many bad people working in this camps trying to gain something anything from the refugees even sex in exchange for a permit or to move your case forward, some of them were really terrible and inhuman such as the case of Goobe, Bisle, Abdirahman. and I'll keep wring these names over and over again until the whole world knows the names of this three-man who have destroyed many many lives and dreams because many of them never made it to their destinations.

What really broke me was reading how while we're living in such a terrible political environment over here in the US, the president in turn was throwing tantrums, hate speeches, and many terrible rules that were affecting all these refugees from across the ocean, 16 refugees took their lives around sixteen months after the orange guy issue the travel ban, not to mention the loss of hope and dreams and the separation of many families. this is when you finally get to see that not everyone is here to help and that not everyone cares.

Bekar. Dr. Sue and Mr. Mulindi, are the people that really helped Asad, no matter what was happening they support him because they knew the amount of stress and hard work Asad was living in.

This is a true story, a story of humans trying to survive and to find a better place to live, this is the real story of good people looking forward to having a place to call home.

Dreams and Goals and striving for them is what kept one young man alive and resilient! Asad Hussein knew one day he would get to the United States and be able to go to school. He loved to read and learn. This young boy from the age of nine was diligent in that he would join his sister Maryan who was able to get to the United States.

This book is written with such loving care by the author. It is a journey of several people as they grew from this process of getting a young boy and his family to safety. There are so many refugees, but this is a strong story of what they all have to endure in order to survive and be able to feel safe and human again.

This book is so in depth that at times I had to reread sections because it was not meshing with the flow or bouncing from one topic that I was confused. This is more biographical and informative type of book.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a deeper view of a refugees struggle from point A to B and that things are not changing all that quickly.

I received a free advanced copy from NetGalley and these are my willingly given thoughts and opinions.

Beyond the Sand and Sea by Ty McCormick

As one of many young people in the Kenyan refugee camp desiring a golden ticket to go to the U.S., will Asad have what it takes to succeed? Will a scholarship to Princeton be his way out?

Befriending this author was Asad’s best decision; from encouragement, financial help and knowing the right people, Ty McCormick and others were his guardian angels.

Asad was persistent, hardworking, lucky and the stars aligned for him in the timing. Though his many stumbling blocks would have stopped anyone else, Asad is a single-minded young man.

This is a success story which will enrich your soul.

#StMartinsPress#NetGalley

Utterly engrossing. You must read this riveting biography of Asad Hussein, a refugee born in one of the largest refugee camps in the world, who, against all odds, ends up studying at Princeton University. Through hard work, exceptional character and abilities, along with the kindness of others and a big dose of luck, he escapes the unending despair of a life in limbo in this huge refugee camp in Kenya. The seemingly insurmountable difficulties repeatedly thrown up in front of him and the sheer number of obstacles between him and his goal of escaping the camp are appalling and heartbreaking. Time after time his hopes are dashed as his Herculean efforts are thwarted by corrupt officials or hard hearted policies. His extraordinary strength in fighting off despair and the temptation to give up is admirable and inspirational. Highly recommended.

Asad Hussein's story of rising out of the lawlessness, squalor, and hopelessness of the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya is a true story of optimism and perseverance. Through a multitude of setbacks that would put anyone off their goals, and Trump's ban on Muslims migrating to the U.S., Asad never stopped believing in education as his way out of the camp. Receiving a scholarship to Princeton, where he continues to study today, was the culmination of his sacrifices.

Asad's sister, mother, and father relocated to the U.S. long before he flew to New York. He credits his sister, Maryan, especially, for her encouragement and support in assisting him to get to the U.S. Despite the financial, emotional, and physical hardships that she encountered in the U.S., Maryan was the sole support in assisting her family's relocation. She and the author eventually flew back to the camp to investigate what kept their family and others locked there for so many years, even after paperwork and medical exams were completed. This led to government investigations of medical personnel who continually asked for bribes and sexual favors from refugees trying to leave, but it seems little came of it.

The author is a skilled writer whose exceptional coverage and research of the lives of the refugees in Dadaab camp became an extraordinary expose. The fact that a boy, such as Asad, could overcome his challenges and eventually end up in the U.S., has to be a beacon of hope for others.

This is an important story for today of the struggle of refugees. We hear about them on the news, but don't know about them as people. I'd recommend this book for a better understanding of who they are, their hopes, dreams, and reality.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of an honest review.

Ty McCormick’s, “Beyond The Sand And Sea,” to be published March 30, 2021, is an extremely moving biographical memoir about Asad Hussein’s epic journey from his birth in Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya, Africa to studying at Princeton University, U.S.A.

An overwhelming account demonstrating perseverance in the midst of adversity, Asad’s story will have you questioning if the situation you find yourself in right now is truly hardship or simply misadventure. Sometimes what we think is hardship is merely the repercussions of bad choices we’ve made. In Asad’s case, he was born into adversity and has nobody to blame. The only way out for him, and refugees like him, is borne out of desperation. His parents fled Somalia due to civil war and walked with whatever they could carry to the northeastern corner of Nigeria. After two years in the camp, Asad was born and his parents still didn’t have any sense of future. Born with a stutter, his father forbid him to attend the camp school for fear of bullying. His desire for education was so intense that he snuck into the school library at dark and read until morning. Have you ever wanted something so badly that you’ve gone to this extreme? We take so much for granted. It’s this innate desire to become better and read about a world he knew nothing about that fuelled his passion for life outside the camp. You’ll be shaking your head in disbelief at the various hoops Asad had to jump through and the myriad of application rejections he received before making it to Princeton; the most difficult of which was the impact of President Trump’s 2017 executive ban to keep refugees from entering the U.S.A. I have a deeper appreciation for those, like me, who have come to this country in search of a better life. I hope my tolerance and my kindness towards others reflects the thankfulness in my heart.

Keeping a dream alive for 20 years consumed every waking moment of Asad’s life. You’ll be inspired as you see our country through his eyes and get a tiny glimpse of what it has cost him to be on our soil experiencing freedom for the first time in his life.

McCormick's gifts of generosity and time helped make Asad's transition possible and now, thanks to this extremely well-documented and easy reading biography, we are privy to the plight of those in Dadaab Refugee Camp. Asad's story will be with me for a long time.

Thank you, Ty McCormick, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this amazing gift of an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.