My Fourth Time, We Drowned cover art

My Fourth Time, We Drowned

Seeking Refuge on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route

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My Fourth Time, We Drowned

By: Sally Hayden
Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
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About this listen

WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZEWINNER OF IRISH BOOK OF THE YEARSHORTLISTED 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.

©2022 Sally Hayden (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers
Adventurers, Explorers & Survival Africa Social Sciences Refugee Heartfelt

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Critic reviews

‘Journalism of the most urgent kind’
Financial Times

‘The triumph of the book is to inject a renewed urgency and moral clarity into a story most people think they are familiar with’
The Times

‘[A] devastating, moving and damning account of one of the tragedies of our age … Hayden never flinches in documenting human nature at its worst – its best is shown here, too’
Irish Independent

‘The most important work of contemporary reporting I have ever read … I hope that Sally Hayden's work can help to begin a radically new and overdue discussion about Europe's approach to migration and borders’
Sally Rooney

‘Brilliant, hugely important reportage on the ongoing situation many of us try to tune out’
Marian Keyes

‘What a devastating book about the catastrophic inhumanity of European migration policy. It’s a journalistic masterpiece. Shattering stories. It absolutely demands to be read … Essential’
Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers

‘Extremely good’
Mark O’Connell, author of Notes from an Apocalypse

‘Compassionate, brave, enraging, beautifully written and incredibly well researched. Hayden exposes the truth’
Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland

‘One of the most important testaments of this awful time in life's history. It is both heartbreaking and stoic’
Edna O'Brien, author of The Little Red Chairs

‘This vivid chronicle … may make you cry, but it should make you angry … A blistering rebuke’
Lindsey Hilsum, International Editor of Channel 4 News

‘A veritable masterclass in journalism … The most riveting, detailed and damning account ever written on the deadliest of migration routes’
Christina Lamb, Chief Foreign Correspondent of the Sunday Times

‘Heart-stopping … A vital book for anyone who wants to feel what it means to be human in the 21st century’
Fintan O’Toole, author of We Don’t Know Ourselves

All stars
Most relevant  
I’m finishing this book just as Rishi Sunak &!Suella Braverman are trying to pass a bill to make it illegal to cross the channel in a small boat to seek asylum.

Feeling despair

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I thought listening to this might be easier than reading but I found myself nonetheless filled with rage and despair about humanity. It is detailed and thorough and the inclusion of the
Voice of the refugee means one cannot detach from the facts.

Grim but necessary

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We need to learn about the wider society in which we live. We need to learn about each other, but we should also learn that what we are told about others and how other groups are betrayed is not always accurate. It is very important for society and for future societies that we try and see the people within the groups and ourselves within the people. It is only then that we call ourselves human and a be a conscious member of the human existence. This is a wonderfully detailed book covering a range of stories from a number of hot spots where people have suffered and continue to suffer at the hands of others. Essential reading for anyone that has the power, or wants to have the power to change things now and in the future. Congratulations on a brilliant and detailed account.

Historically important.

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This book is so compelling and clear. No one could listen to it without feeling the need to push the EU and the UN for change.

Strong and Humanitarian

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This is certainly an eye opener. Well worth listening too. It certainly makes you question how we think about and treat other humans.

Heartbreaking

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Great work and eye-opening account of man's inhumanity to man in our 'civilised' world. kudos to Sally for her work.

ear opening

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astonishing read about something vital. detailed, in -depth, human, and thorough. really opened my eyes. the performance is also clear and engaging. loved it

incredible

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Sally Hayden's extraordinary book illustrates the systems creating and controlling the experiences people have travelling to Europe to seek asylum. It will open your mind to the reality of human rights in Europe. Definitely read this book.

Extraordinary Book, Important story

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The suffering of asylum seekers and refugees in this account is shocking and so unnecessary. Successive governments in the EU have paid millions of pounds to facilitate human rights abuses. I found this appealing.

A unjust fight to keep asylum seekers from reachin

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Incredibly researched, beautifully narrated, eye opening and harrowing. This is the book I will urge everybody I know to read this year.

Must read

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