Placing himself at the mercy of Egyptian smuggler gangs in Alexandria and at sea, journalist Wolfgang Bauer went undercover to document first-hand the flight of Syrian refugees crossing the Mediterranean. The book, the first of its kind, is an incisive portrait both of the lives behind the crisis and the systemic problems that constitute it.

“The last words of this book are ‘Have mercy.’ There is no more to say. Bauer’s impressive depiction speaks for itself.”—Tagesspiegel