The Same Stars

Imagine leaving your home -- alone -- at the age of 14 and traveling thousands of miles to a country you know nothing about. You might have to walk through high, cold mountains in the middle of the night. You might have to take a boat over the ocean, with people crammed in on all sides of you, praying that the boat will not sink because you don't know how to swim. You might be caught by the police and thrown into jail, or sent back to where you started. You might be robbed, beaten up, raped, tortured. Or you might simply... disappear. It happens all the time.

Asad, an Afghani boy, is forced to leave his country. He sets off on a dangerous two-and-a-half year journey to Europe. On the way, he stops to earn money in a carpet-making factory in Pakistan and on a construction site in Iran. People smugglers -- paid with borrowed money -- guide him across deserts over mountains, past border guards and Taliban fighters. His journey ends in Sweden, a country he finds as alien as the moon. He starts school and slowly makes friends with three new classmates. Asad finds it difficult to trust anyone, and all of his new friends have their own problems and issues -- Noah was bullied as a child, the musician Izzy has alcoholic parents, and Raven, an American, is struggling with her own (more light-hearted) culture shock and trying to come to grips with dyslexia and low self-esteem.

And Asad's problems are not over. One day his brother Sohrab calls from Pakistan. Sohrab, who had financed the start of Asad's trip, is being threatened by the smugglers who want their money back -- with interest, and within ten days. When Asad hears how the smugglers intend to collect on the debt if they are not repaid in time, he comes up with a desperate plan of his own to raise the money. His actions save his family, but at a high cost to himself. Now it is Asad who is being hunted.

The Same Stars is based on the true stories of a half-dozen Afghani boys. It is an adventure story, but also a story of friendship across cultures, and a story of four young people who can only overcome their private demons by joining forces and relying on the strength of the group.

The author: Gail Davison Blad worked as a journalist, newswriter, public relations specialist, and advertising copywriter in Boston, Mass., Orlando, Florida, and Buffalo, New York, for more than ten years before she moved to Sweden. She is now a teacher with 16 years of experience teaching English to students from age twelve to 19, as well as adult students. She also writes teaching material (Boost Your English, Sanoma, 2014; Really Inspiring, Sanoma, 2012) and is one of the authors of Wings 8 (Natur & Kultur, 2016) and the upcoming Wings 9.