Jo Case reviews 'From Under a Leaky Roof: Afghan refugees in Australia' by Phil Sparrow

April 2006, no. 280

From Under a Leaky Roof: Afghan refugees in Australia by Phil Sparrow

FACP, $24.95 pb, 160 pp

Jo Case reviews 'From Under a Leaky Roof: Afghan refugees in Australia' by Phil Sparrow

April 2006, no. 280

Phil Sparrow lived and worked as a UN aid worker in pre-9/11 Afghanistan for nearly three years. Evacuated when the country was attacked by the US, he returned to Australia and worked as an interpreter for Afghan refugees in Australia. In this book, Sparrow writes about his experiences in Afghanistan and Australia, and his reading of the Australian government’s response to refugees, particularly those from Afghanistan.

Jo Case

Jo Case is senior writer/editor for the Wheeler Centre. Her previous roles have included editor of Readings Monthly, the newsletter for Readings Books & Music, books editor of The Big Issue, co-editor of their annual fiction edition, and associate editor of Kill Your Darlings. Her reviews, essays and opinion pieces have been published in The Age, The Australian, and The Sydney Morning Herald, and her short stories have been published in the Sleepers Almanac and Best Australian Stories. Her first book, Boomer and Me: A memoir of motherhood, and Asperger’s, was published by Hardie Grant in Australia (April 2013).