Hinterland
It is night, and two boys are crossing a river that is also a border. They have nothing but the clothes on their backs, their inheritance stitched into the lining of a belt, and the courage of an enormous gamble: that they will find, on the other side, the future they can no longer wait for in Afghanistan.
Whether trapped in Greece, lost in Italy or imagining England whilst huddled in the sand dunes in France, the boys take risks they cannot estimate with strangers they shouldn’t trust.
Hinterland is a novel about the consequences of war; about love, courage, and how far two boys will go to fight for their lives.
What they said
The book’s emotional heart is the relationship between the brothers – Aryan forced to assume the role of a parent, Kabir exiled so long that he can’t remember the face of his dead mother. Brothers’ elegant prose holds sentimentality at bay, complementing some impressive reportage.
– Adrian Turpin, The Financial Times
The emotional as well as geographical borderlands are sensitively delineated in this visceral and moving debut: those at which love tips into hate, tenderness into brutality, hope into despair. The author details the forbidding landscapes through which the orphans travel, and subtly explores treacherous psychological terrain.
– Anita Sethi, The Independent
This compelling new novel ... will open your eyes and break your heart.
– Pam Houston, More Magazine
Brothers has created almost unbearably vulnerable characters in Aryan and Kabir, who are utterly believable. With superb skill, she details the almost insurmountable difficulties of their journey. – Independent on Sunday
Books like this change hearts and ideas.
– The Bookbag
Puts the humanity back into our news cycle.
– Vince Chadwick
A beautiful story that really makes you question your thoughts and feelings on this matter and makes you realise that sadly this is real, it is actually happening out there and we too often turn our heads the other way. 10/10 is my vote on this book.
– Mari's World
The landscape, the weather, the natural world and physical sensations are described with a shocking painterly intensity ... There is poetry on every page, as well as pity, and the poetry is not always in the pity but in the joy of being alive on this earth.
– Siobhán Parkinson, The Irish Times
A book that haunts and shames in equal measure.
– Catherine Taylor, The Guardian
[This book] brings home the terrible human consequences of war. Caroline Brothers's stark, unsentimental novel is one everyone should read.
– John Harding, The Daily Mail
A sparse prose poem on the subject of trespass in all its forms. It is a timely debut which pulls no punches in its ending, but one which nonetheless offers touching moments. From the occasional kindness of strangers to the deep strength Ayran and Kabir find within each other, Hinterland is a celebration of the human spirit. – Val Nolan, The Irish Examiner
Brothers shines a powerful light on the shadowy world of cross-border refugees in this compelling and empathetic account of two children seeking a chance at life a long way from home.
– The Library Journal
Impossible to put down, Hinterland will leave you in emotional turmoil but also wiser, and more compassionate to the stark truths our comfortable lives shelter us from.
– Easyvoyage.co.uk
Brothers has the seasoned journalist’s eye for the idiosyncratic detail and a sense for the riveting turnabouts that keep readers as off balance as her characters.
– Jan Stuart, The New York Times
A hard-hitting debut.
– Emma Hagedtstadt, The Independent
Brothers catches one droplet from the great wave and invites us to look.
– Margie Thompson, NZ Herald
A compassionate and vigorous tale ... the cinematic scope given to their journey underscores its immense undertaking.
– Publishers' Weekly
This book has the haunting ring of truth.
– The Irish Times
There were occasions where I simply had to put this book down and hug my own child before continuing.
– Chris Gordon, Readings
Hinterland belongs in a group with Little Bee and the Blue Notebook in how it points out the plight of children in unfamiliar parts of the world, but it also stands as a great, suspenseful read, one of those universal stories of tremendous courage against insurmountable odds that speaks to something fundamental in all of us; and I, for one, will never be the same after spending the weekend in the Hinterland.
– Annie Leonard, The Next Chapter
If it had been written in Sanskrit I would have taken lessons in order to read it.
– Suzanne O’Connor
Other impacts
Print and Online
Largehearted Boy - Playlist for Caroline Brothers - Hinterland
In her own words, here is Caroline Brothers's Book Notes music playlist for her debut novel, Hinterland
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Q&A: Novel springs from journalist’s concern for Afghan children
Caroline Brothers discusses her first book, “Hinterland,” which tells the story of two Afghan children journeying to Europe in hopes of a better life.
10 terrifying questions: Booktopia
Caroline Brothers, author of Hinterland, answers Ten Terrifying Questions
Hinterland, Czech
Hinterland, Dutch
Hinterland, German
Hinterland, German
Hinterland, Italian
Hinterland, Italian