Before We Say Goodbye (11 page)
Read Before We Say Goodbye Online
Authors: Gabriella Ambrosio
Youth groups
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If you would like to join Amnesty International, join or set up a youth group, or simply find out more, go to
www.amnesty.org.uk/youth
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17–25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA 020 7033 1596
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www.amnesty.org.uk
“It was 8.30 p.m. on 14 January; the area was quiet except of course there was always the noise of F-16s, Apaches, drones. There was no electricity. All my family were in the yard or the house listening to the news – negotiations in Egypt, martyrs, etc. The missile hit. Four were dead at once; my brother’s body was all in pieces. We want to understand something: why did they hit our house? It is in a residential area. We are neither Hamas nor Fatah. We are all civilians. None of us did anything. My father was opposed to firing rockets against the Israelis; he wanted peace, and they killed him. We have nothing to do with the resistance. We don’t understand. We want peace, and we want an investigation; we want to know why my sisters and I have been orphaned. Why did they kill our parents, our family? What life will we have now? Who will take care of us?”
Fathiya Mousa speaking to Amnesty International
(Fathiya’s parents and siblings were killed in an Israeli air strike during Operation Cast Lead in January 2010.)
“My five-year-old son always asks where the closest bomb shelter is. Little children shouldn’t have such worries; they should worry about what to play next.”
Geut Aragon
(Geut’s house in Sderot, Israel, was hit by a Palestinian rocket in January 2009.)
R
afiq’s turn came and he stepped up to the chalk line. It reached the top of his ear. “This one is big enough. He goes in the truck. He’s our first.”
Rafiq is only nine when Kashmiri Freedom Fighters raid his village in search of new recruits. Tall for his age, he is the first boy to cross the chalk line into a life of brutality and violence.
Jameela cannot forget her brother. While Rafiq is trained to kill in the rebel camp high in the mountains, she keeps his memory alive.
When finally their paths cross again, Rafiq is unrecognizable as the boy who left the village. Will Jameela know him?
Endorsed by Amnesty International
L
ife is harsh in the mountain village in Nepal where Lakshmi works hard alongside her mother to look after the family. When her stepfather finds her a job as a maid in the city, Lakshmi begins the long journey to India dreaming of earning money and making her family proud.
The truth that awaits her is a living nightmare.
“An unforgettable account of sexual slavery as it exists now.”
Booklist
US National Book Award finalist
Endorsed by Amnesty International
Gabriella Ambrosio
is an Italian journalist and copywriter, a former professor and currently president of an international advertising agency in Italy. She has written several successful essays and recently contributed to
Freedom
, a short-story anthology celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but
Before We Say Goodbye
(first published in Italy as
Prima di Lasciarsi
) is her first novel. It won an Italian first novel award at the Festival du Premier Romance in Chambery, France and is now also available in both Arabic and Hebrew. Gabriella lives with her husband and two children in Rome.
After working at a variety of jobs,
Alastair McEwen
spent ten years teaching English and history in Italy before finally turning to translation. Over the last 25 years he has translated over 70 books, including novels and non-fiction as well as essays, articles, poems, feature-film scripts and operatic librettos. Alastair has worked with many of Italy’s finest living writers, including Roberto Calasso and Umberto Eco. He lives and works in Milan.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
First published in Great Britain 2010 by Walker Books Ltd 87 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HJ
Original edition:
Prima di Lasciarsi
© 2004 Gabriella Ambrosio
English translation © 2010 Alastair McEwen
Cover image © 2010 Luis Costa /
Photolibrary.com
The right of Gabriella Ambrosio and Alastair McEwen to be identified as author and translator respectively of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-4063-3242-1 (ePub)
ISBN 978-1-4063-3241-4 (e-PDF)