Thank you for access to this book via giveaway! I enjoyed being able to check it out and have told friends about it who would be interested in the premise even though I myself did not fully complete the book. Thanks for the opportunity to learn more!

"North to Paradise" by Ousman Umar is a compelling and poignant memoir that chronicles the author's extraordinary journey from hardship to hope. Set against the backdrop of war-torn Sierra Leone, Umar's narrative is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. The book delves into his experiences as a child soldier, the horrors he endured, and the heartbreaking loss of loved ones.

Through vivid and evocative prose, Umar takes readers on an emotional rollercoaster, painting a vivid picture of the brutality and despair he faced. However, at its core, "North to Paradise" is a story of triumph over adversity. Umar's determination to escape his past and find a better life in Europe is awe-inspiring.

This gripping memoir is not just a tale of survival but a powerful reflection on the importance of empathy, compassion, and the pursuit of dreams. "North to Paradise" is a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the human experience and the enduring power of hope.

I won't be dating this as I received an ARC over a yr+ ago & am not entirely sure I finished or why I never wrote anything.
It wasn't badly written & had some shocking/good moments that I now can recall thinking back but it was just as easily forgotten overall.
If these are the type of books you enjoy then you'll like this title but it doesn't stand out in a world where these books are a dime a dozen.
An admirable man who overcame great adversity in a world of just such men.

It costs you nothing to be kind, and you never know how much of an effect on someone’s life you can have. That is what this book reminded me, and it is especially important this time of year when so many of us have so much, and so many have so little. The brave journey that Ousman Umar took from Ghana to Europe is incredible, what he went through and how far he came is nothing short of a miracle. What an incredible story that I am so glad I read, and I highly recommend others read as well. This is a short but powerful and inspiring read, I listened via audio and finished in one sitting.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Crossing for the digital copy to review.

Truly a story of incredible perseverance as Ousman Umar relates how he travelled from Ghana to Europe, braving the brutal desert, criminals (traffickers, pimps, thieves, etc.), racism and violence.

It’s a fascinating and informative, and pretty horrifying in parts. But also inspiring.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Amazon Crossing for this ARC in exchange for my review.

I have read quite a few books about the refugee crisis from different countries just this year. This book has a more unique ending than a few others. The entire book feels like a translated work, this being one of the rare occasions that that is actually a bonus.
The bewilderment of a child and later young adult thrust into the idea of leaving his country to greener pastures without almost actually making a conscious choice to do so!
This sorrowful trip does not get any different or less horrific the more times you read it, but every story is a bit different. In this particular case, the ending is stable and happy. The book is very short. Surprisingly so. I enjoyed the photos that accompanied the narrative, cementing the overall arc of the author's life journey.
I cannot make my review longer than the book, and the blurb provides the bare bones of what we are to encounter.
We get glimpses of the systems in place for integration and how difficult it is for anyone to make sense of enforcing the policies at the level of the refugee. Of the ones I have recently had the opportunity to read, I would actually recommend this to people who are on the lookout for fiction/non-fiction on this topic because of its length and how much it was able to inform within that length.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

A great and powerful memoir about an immigrant's journey. The writing is compelling and emotional. On his journey, Umar encounters some of the worst impulses and behaviors of humanity, but he also experiences great kindness from other people. Despite his bad experiences, he is able to see most people as being good and wanting to be kind to others. This was a great memoir with lots of emotion behind it.

I would like to thank Amazon Crossing for providing me with an ARC.

This was a short and at times traumatizing memoir of a man's journey. The author talks about his life's path from leaving his birth place of Ghana, and traveling through extremely hard times to get to Europe. It is a very short read, but is also very humbling.

Another absolutely incredible personal story of an immigrant's trek/journey, beating incredible odds/hazards thrown across his path! This 13 y/o began his solo journey in the Ghana jungle, trekked 3 weeks thru the Sahara & survived a treacherous boat crossing & navigated thru instances of predatory exploitation (human trafficking). He tells about how his path crossed, seemingly miraculously, with people who helped/offered kindness along the way. The book is quite short & very easy to read. At the end, when he tells about what he's done with his life.....is very inspirational....his 'repayment' to the world is amazing! The pictures at the end are really nice too. I'd recommend this book to everyone!
I received this e-ARC from Amazon Crossing via NetGalley, after offering to read it & post my own fair & honest review.

My first book to read by this author but definitely not my last! Such a gripping novel that made it hard for me to put his book down once I started it. Highly recommend!!

Leaving Ghana on a perilous journey north to what he calls paradise, the Land of the Whites, Ousman travels through the Sahara, into Libya, and then ultimately to Spain where he finds sanctuary. Helped by many people on his journey, this is an uplifting book.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It took me a while to get to this book - it's been sitting on my NetGalley shelf for a while.

This was such a tiny book that packed such a huge, harrowing tale, I finished it in one sitting. Ousman is the son of a shaman. His birth mother died, but he grows up believing his aunt is his mother. At the age of nine, he begins working in town, but has higher aspirations: to go north to Paradise, "the land of the whites."

Moving from town to town, job to job, he makes friends along the way, including Musa, who he would cross paths with numerous times that he thought their destinies were certain. But making it from Ghana to Paradise is not an easy journey. My heart broke for not only Ousman, but also Musa, and Akosua, and the forty members of their group who attempted to cross the Sahara after being abandoned by guides, but didn't make it.

So much happens in these few pages, but like Ousman's perception of time during this journey, the time it took me to read it is skewed. Hardly any time at all passed, and yet I lived years with Ousman as he grew from a boy to an adolescent to a man on a mission.

There were some parts that I think either contradicted other parts of the book or else were perhaps not translated true? But the whole of the story was amazing. Many times Ousman talks about his luck, but he also talks about how even in the worst of places he was in, he kept to his Muslim faith and prayed five times a day, even in the face of mockery.

This was not an easy-on-the-heart read. There are groups of people who died in the desert, not just from Ousman's party, but countless others, scammed by guides or guides themselves who meant good but just couldn't make it. There's a house he stays in where women, mostly from Nigeria, are trafficked and forced into a life where they either sell their bodies or "die from the trauma." You can feel the author's desperation and heartbreak and horror at not being able to help anyone because he can barely help himself.

But one thing he never fails to mention throughout the entirety of the book is that no matter how bad things got, there were always good people. Someone to guide him to where he needed to be. Someone to feed him just enough not to starve. Someone to give him just barely enough money to do what he needed to do. Indeed, the end of the book is a testament to the good of humanity.

I highly recommend this book, and also highly recommend making allowances for the fact that the author started this journey at such a tender, young age, and went through so much trauma himself that it's amazing he thought to sit down and chronicle his journey for others, reliving it as he did, and also for the fact that this has been translated.

In this slim and powerful memoir, Ousman Umar recounts the story of his harrowing journey from his native Ghana to ‘the Land of the Whites’ in search of a better life. Ousman left his village at a very young age to find work in a nearby town and it becomes his dream to emigrate to Europe.

My god, it’s an awful story and I could persevere only because I knew it ended well – otherwise he wouldn’t have lived to tell it. Especially the story of the crossing of the Sahara is chilling. An important reminder of how lucky we are to live in wealth and freedom and also of the importance of human kindness.

Very interesting memoir about the struggles the author met as he travelled. Engaging and inspiring. Author contributes to increasing education in his home country.

I chose to read this book after receiving a free e-copy from the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased.

What a journey! The perils that Ousman encountered trying to get to “White Man’s Land” would be unbearable for most of us, and to think that he was a child! He suffered through so much, it was a relief when he finally made it to Spain even though his struggles weren’t over yet.

It was eye opening to learn how many migrants die trying to find a better life, and how many get stuck along the way as slaves in one way or another. Ousman was one of the lucky ones, but he also had the perseverance and strength to continue on. And the strangers he met in Spain were amazing!

My favorite part of the book was the end. Ousman explained how he started NASCO Feeding Minds. Talk about making a difference! There were also several pictures that had captions explaining when and where they were taken.

I don’t read a lot of memoirs but this one is absolutely worth your time.

What happens next after you discover that Fuerteventura, ‘the Promised Land’, isn’t the paradise you envisioned?

Born to a respected shaman and raised by his aunt in Fiaso, rural Ghana, Umar begins by telling of his mother who died giving birth to him. Leaving home to find work became a necessity and Umar, just 9 years old, added to his knowledge about the world outside his village as he lived and worked in bigger cities. One time when he returned home, he discovered that his father had arranged a marriage for him and encouraged him to stay home. Unfortunately, the dream for a better life had been planted.

At 12 years old, illiterate Umar began a journey that lasted 5 tumultuous years. He recalls that when he started “there were forty-six of us. Only six survived.” His harrowing journey saw him abandoned by his smugglers, crossing the Sahara with no food or water, locked in a jail, kidnapped, squeezing fistfuls of sand in the desert “until a single drop fell”, struggling with racism and abuse, extortion, and, after experiencing the loneliest moments of his young life, he survives a horrendous journey across the sea in a dingy. And that’s not all of it. Unfortunately, Umar’s journey was not over as he had yet to jump the hurdles of racism, culture and language before he could even approach the Red Cross office in the “Land of the Whites.”

Was it worth it? How can he use this experience to move forward?

As I read about the bookends of humanity, it made me more appreciative of what I have and more willing to extend a helping hand to those who are less fortunate. This is truly an amazing migration memoir about the strength of the human spirit. Through his hardship, Umar never suffocated his dream to find the good in life. You will have to read to find out about the wonderful family who helped him in Barcelona - the ‘mom’ who gave him his first good night kiss on his forehead - and about him founding an NGO, ‘NASCO Feeding Minds’, where he is driven to help others with similar backgrounds to find an opportunity to better themselves.

At 142 pages spread over 7 chapters, this is a worthy short read for anyone interested in understanding more about the realities of migrants overcoming insurmountable odds in a search for a better life. I found the map and the photos very helpful.

I was gifted this copy by Ousman Umar, AmazonCrossing, and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

.

This is an earnest account of the author’s harrowing journey from Africa to Spain. It’s appalling to hear the miserable conditions and torture he had to endure to make it through. Many others didn’t survive, but the author is attempting to help those he can.. Although the writing style isn’t top-notch, this is a story that needs to be told.

Thanks to the publisher for an ARC copy of this book to review.

“The desert is full of corpses, scattered among the dunes."

This nail-biting, engrossing memoir sweeps you away to Ghana and the illegal human smuggling route to Italy. The horrific brutality of the conditions that Ousman had to survive are apparent from the very first sentence, including one harrowing trek through the desert where only six of the forty-six migrants survived.

Ousman is born into a small tribal village in Ghana, where his father is the shaman. He loved his son enough to save his life, as children whose mothers die in childbirth are usually abandoned due to fear of a curse. Yet he lied to his son about who his mother was and struggled to have any sort of connection with the child he saved. Ousman grew up hearing fantastic tales about Europe, and he became determined to go there. At age twelve, he sets out, following the migrant route through Africa, the middle east, and finally, Europe.

The author uses a matter-of-fact tone to describe his circumstances, skimming over the emotions and exhaustion the circumstances must have created. Ousman bounces from job to job, barely surviving, at one point pausing for four years in Benghazi, but each time he gets a little cash, he takes a step closer to his destination. He finds and loses his friend Musa several times along the journey.

The devastation and horror of his circumstances along the route are balanced by his joy and accomplishments once he finally settles in Barcelona, Spain. This true story shed light on a struggle I knew little about: African migrants heading to Europe. It's a riveting read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received an electronic ARC from AmazonCrossing through NetGalley.
Umar recalls his journey from Ghana to Spain as a teenager. He left home and was smuggled through several countries until ending up in Barcelona. Readers see the reality of this time as related by the author. He shares his memories of the treacherous portions as well as some of the brief joys as he traveled with other migrants and engaged with smugglers to seek "the land of the Whites." It's encouraging to see that he made it, succeeded, and formed his own company. The book also serves as a reminder of how many die along this path or end up in an unbreakable poverty cycle in another country.
The book reads as one continuous path with pauses along the way.

The author recounts his solo immigrant journey from Ghana to Barcelona when he was a young teen. Stranded and left to walk the Sahara desert for 18 days was harrowing, and this was just the beginning of his arduous journey. A spattering of kind human souls helped him along his way, but mostly he encountered frauds and thieves. Embarking on his own, and rarely having any trusted companions, this journey took years.

I do not know if it’s the author or the translator of this book which renders the story a middle-schooler’s tale. Very basic vocabulary and sentence structure throughout the book does not enhance the story. The characters, even when the story is being told in the first person, are not very complex. The memoir is devoid of the nuances which might have engaged me in this author, his tale, and his continued work with immigrants. I only finished the book because I was curious about a first-person account of an immigrant’s journey from Africa to Europe.