Scattered
**Longlisted for the Bread & Roses Award 2025**
‘Brave, powerful, and deeply necessary ... A vital contribution to the Black British literary canon’ Afua Hirsch
‘Fresh and important’ Guardian
‘An exceptional book’ Sally Hayden
‘Wonderful’ Financial Times
‘An extraordinary story’ Nish Kumar
When Aamna Mohdin travelled to Calais to report on the refugee crisis, she was confronted by a reality she had been outrunning for two decades: that she had been a child refugee herself.
Determined to piece her scattered family history together, Mohdin set off on a mission. Her journey would see her cross the world: from the rooftops of Mogadishu to a reunion with a long-lost friend in Amsterdam to Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya.
Scattered is a powerful investigation into the aftershocks of displacement, written by a young woman uniquely placed to explore the refugee experience. But it is also a story of homecoming in many forms – and a defiant celebration of family and love.
‘In a moment where refugees are rarely heard from, her voice breaks through’ Gary Younge
‘Mohdin explores her Somali family’s refugee experience across continents in her wonderful book’ Financial Times
Aamna Mohdin is the Guardian’s first community affairs correspondent, reporting on the social, political and economic experiences of the UK’s diverse communities, with a particular focus on Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. Mohdin spent her early years in the Kakuma refugee camp, Saudi Arabia, Germany and the Netherlands, before arriving in the UK aged seven. Mohdin is the winner of the British Journalism Award 2022 and her work has been shortlisted for the British Press Awards. She was previously a reporter at Quartz where she led the publication’s coverage of the European refugee crisis. She lives in London.
@aamnamohdin