My Fourth Time, We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route

WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE WINNER OF IRISH BOOK OF THE YEAR SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE ‘The most important work of contemporary reporting I have ever read’ SALLY ROONEY The treatment of refugees has become one of the most devastating human rights disasters in our history. In this book, award-winning journalist Sally Hayden unfolds a staggering investigation into the migrant crisis across North Africa. This book follows the experiences of refugees, telling a range of shocking and eye-opening human stories. But it also surveys the bigger picture: the negligence of NGOs and corruption within the United Nations. The economics of the twenty-first-century slave trade and the EU’s bankrolling of Libyan militias. The trials of people smugglers, the frustrations of aid workers, the loopholes refugees seek out and the role of social media in crowdfunding ransoms. Who was accountable for the abuse? Where were the people finding solutions? Why wasn’t it being widely reported? At its heart, this is a book about people who have made unimaginable choices, risking everything to survive in a system that wants them to be silent and disappear. This long-listed autobiography is not just a biography of survival, but a testament to the human spirit in the face of political misconduct. It's a top pick for anyone interested in the intersection of politics, science, and the will to survive. For fans of Philippe Sands (The Ratline), Hisham Matar (The Return), Andrea Elliott (Invisible Child), Nathan Thrall (The Only Language They Understand), and Richard Baker (A Fortunate Woman). HarperCollins 2022 I cry reading any page of it’ EDNA O’BRIEN