Khaled Hosseini wrote Sea Prayer to commemorate the death of Alan Kurdi, the Syrian boy who drowned on the trip to Greece to flee the war in Syria.

In less than 50 pages and with gut-wrenching illustrations we follow the story of a family the night before their potentially fatal journey. The story is written in the form of a monologue, from a father to his son lying asleep in his lap.

Despite the fact that the full text can be found on Khaled Hosseini's Twitter account, and the wonderfully made illustrated film by The Guardian, the short book has a compelling format. With few words on each page, almost like poetry, combined with the striking imagery of a luscious country that gets more and more deteriorated with every flip of the page, you can't help but feel misery the family is going through.

Even though this particular story is one of fiction, stories of refugees aren't. Since Alan's death in 2015, at least 8,500 refugees and migrants have died or gone missing trying to cross the Meditteranean Sea.

For a book this short it definitely packs a punch, a heartbreaking must read.
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”This book is dedicated
to the thousands of refugees
who have perished at sea
fleeing war and persecution.”