The Waiting Place: When Home Is Lost and a New One Not Yet Found

“Infused with empathy and understanding. . . . This is a book to be read and discussed.” —School Library Connection (starred review)

In 2018, Dina Nayeri—a former refugee and the daughter of a refugee—invited documentary photographer Anna Bosch Miralpeix to accompany her to Katsikas, a refugee camp in Greece, to record the hopes and struggles of ten young Farsi-speaking refugees from Iran and Afghanistan. Ranging in age from five to seventeen, the children live in partitioned shipping-crate homes crowded on a field below a mountain. Battling a dreary monster that wants to rob them of their purpose, dignity, and identity, each survives in his or her own way.
The Waiting Place is an unflinching look at ten young lives suspended outside of time—and bravely proceeding anyway. Each lyrical passage leads the reader from one story to the next, revealing the dreams, ambitions, and personalities of each displaced child. The stories are punctuated by intimate photographs, followed by the author’s reflections on life in a refugee camp. Locking the global refugee crisis sharply in focus, The Waiting Place is an urgent call to change what we teach young people about the nature of home and safety.