A series of almost implausible strokes of fortune enabled him to get to Turin, find help from an Italian family and meet Fabio Geda, with whom he became friends. The author's note describes the background for the construction of this book and the gradual reconstruction of Enaiatollah Akbari's migration from Afghanistan to Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece and finally, to Italy. He occasionally interjects with a question or comment, but for the most part, it is Enaiatollah just talking. My mother decided it was better to know I was in danger far from her; but on the way to a different future, than to know I was in danger near her; but stuck in the same old fear.

incredibilmente arrivano a destinazione (o meglio arrivano ad una riva, ma non sanno dove sono), ma uno di loro è caduto in mare e l'hanno perso. He would skip over parts of a time period or scene that seemed more important to me or that I would have wanted to learn more about. One night before putting him to bed, Enaiatollah’s mother tells him three things: don’t use drugs or weapons, don’t cheat, don’t steal.

il ragazzo non sa quando è nato (cosa che per noi è inconcepibile), non sa quanto tempo è stato in un posto o in un altro. I never knew there were so many displaced children in this day and age, of many different ethnic types, and many different ages.

Penniless and homeless, unable to speak the local language, Enaiat discovers quickly that the one commodity of value he possesses is his ability to work.He sets his sights on moving to somewhere he hears the opportunities are better, and pays people-traffickers (whose "services" he will employ well into his teens) to get him to Iran.