Lights In The Distance

‘Such a powerful book’ Irish Times
‘Compelling’ Financial Times
‘Brilliantly researched and written’ Observer
‘Humane and illuminating’ Olivia Laing

NOW WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION

A mother asks: what else could I do?

She puts her children into a refrigerated lorry, hoping it's the safest way out. A runaway teenager comes of age on the streets and in abandoned buildings. A student leaves his war-ravaged country because he refuses to kill. Every year, thousands of people cross into Europe seeking asylum, each one carrying a story that doesn't end at the border.

In Lights in the Distance, acclaimed journalist Daniel Trilling draws on years of reporting to build a portrait of the refugee crisis as seen through the eyes of those who lived it. As the EU has grown, so has a tangled, often violent system built to filter out unwanted migrants, one that stretches from the border deep into Europe's cities. Visiting camps and hostels, sneaking into detention centres, and drawing on his own family's history of displacement, Trilling follows people across countries and years, revealing how labels like refugee or illegal fall short of the truth.

The EU was founded on a promise: never again. Now, facing its worst refugee crisis since the Second World War, that promise is being tested. Lights in the Distance is a powerful, illuminating account of what's really at stake.