The boy who fled Afghanistan and endured a terrifying journey in the hands of people smugglers is now a young man intent on changing the world. His story is a deeply harrowing and incredibly inspiring tale of our times.

“To risk my life had to mean something. Otherwise, what was it all for?”

Gulwali Passarlay fled Afghanistan aged twelve, after his father was killed in a gun battle with the US Army. Smuggled into Iran, Gulwali began a twelve-month odyssey across Europe. He was beaten, hungry, thrown into prison, and almost drowned in the Mediterranean. Somehow, he survived, and made it to Britain, no longer an innocent child but still a young boy, alone. But sanctuary was not immediate. A disbelieving Home Office did not believe his age. It took the love and determination of his teacher to help him win the right to stay in the UK. In a story of human triumph, he made it to university, and carried the Olympic torch in 2012.

The story brings to life the plight of the thousands of men, women and children who are making this perilous journey every day. One boy’s experience is the central story of our times. This memoir celebrates the triumph of courage and determination over adversity.

In the aftermath of the Western withdrawal of Afghanistan, this story of survival and hope from a voice of the country’s most oppressed group could not be more timely. Born to the second of her father’s seven wives in rural Afghanistan, Fawzia Koofi’s mother―who had hoped for a son―left her to die in the sun after birth. But despite a childhood of abuse and deprivation in a notoriously sexist society, she rose above her fate to become the first female Speaker of Parliament. Along the way, she faced the murders of her father, brother, and husband, and numerous attempts on her life. Here, she shares her amazing story, punctuated by a series of poignant letters she wrote to her two daughters before each political trip―letters describing the future and freedoms she dreamed of for them and all their countrywomen. This eloquent memoir pleads for the world to recognize the politically devastating consequences as Afghanistan is once more relinquished to the Taliban, undoing all the fragile progress of recent years.

The infamous religious cult known as The Children of God abused, exploited, and brainwashed its members. The cult stole Natacha Tormey’s childhood.

Born to French hippy parents attracted to the religious movement by the unusual mix of evangelical Christianity, free love, and rejection of the mainstream. From an early age Natacha was brainwashed to believe she had a special destiny – that she was part of an elite children’s army bestowed with superpowers that would one day save the world from the Anti-Christ.

Torn away from their parents, Natacha and her siblings were beaten on a daily basis and forced to sing and dance for entertainment in prisons and malls. Natacha never expected to live to adulthood.

At the age of 18 Natacha escaped, but quickly found herself hurtling through a world could not understand. Alone, and grappling to come to terms with an unbelievable sense of betrayal, she was stuck in a kind of limbo – confused and unable to feel part of either way of life.

Natacha is one of the lucky ones; not all of her family survived the battle to shed the shame and pain of their past. To date over 40 ex-Children of God members of Natacha’s generation have committed suicide.