In the Sea There Are Crocodiles

Fabio Geda was born in Turin, in northern Italy, in 1972. Although he earned a college degree in communication sciences and then worked as an educator, he had been passionate about storytelling since he was a child, and he published his first novel in 2007. Since then, he has published several more novels and collaborated on a series of books for children. In the Sea there are Crocodiles, his third book, was his biggest hit. It became a huge bestseller in Italy and has been translated into over 30 languages. Geda also writes for various newspapers and magazines, and he works with children under duress, which features thematically in many of his books. He also teaches creative writing at Scuola Holden, a school in his hometown of Turin. Despite his great professional success, he maintains a low profile.

In the Sea there are Crocodiles is loosely based on a true story. Geda conducted interviews with Enaiatollah Akbari, an Afghan refugee who settled in Italy, and these interviews formed the basis of the novel. The novel spans a period of about eight years, from the very early 2000s onward. This was an incredibly turbulent time in Afghanistan, where Enaiat’s story begins. The Taliban, a coalition of Islamic fundamentalists composed primarily of the ethnic majority Pashtuns, came to power in 1996 on the tail end of a civil war. As Enaiat’s recollections indicate, their reign brought in brutal repression, particularly against women and ethnic minorities. Enaiat describes watching 9/11 on TV as it happened, and indeed this set in motion the chain of events that led to the United States invading Afghanistan and officially ousting the Taliban for the duration of the ensuing 20-year war. The Taliban swiftly regained power upon the US’s withdrawal in 2021 and currently run the country once again. Enaiat’s own journey reflects the broader pattern of mass migration from the Middle East to the West, which was exacerbated by the US’s long and destructive wars in the region.

Other young adult-appropriate works that deal with turbulence in Afghanistan and the refugee experience include The Breadwinner (2001) by Deborah Ellis, and Boy Overboard (2002) by Morris Gleitzman. More adult treatments of this time and place that, like In the Sea there are Crocodiles, deal with the rise of the Taliban and persecution in Afghanistan include Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner (2003) and A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007). Fabio Geda’s other novels also deal with themes of displacement and coming of age, and he published a follow-up book to In the Sea there are Crocodiles in 2020, Storia di un figlio: Andato e ritorno (Story of a Son: There and Back) that surveys Enaiat’s life in the years after the first book ends, as well as his family’s life back in Afghanistan. In the Sea There are Crocodiles is the only of Geda’s books, however, that has been translated into English.