Dear Papa 

I think you’ll find. That no one can take away the trees that grow in your mind.

Page 57, Where the River Runs Gold

So says young Themba attempting to comfort his father who is grieving at the closing down of libraries and the lack of access to books, digital connection, or an education for his children beyond the age of twelve. In the dystopian near future world called ‘Kairos’ in my book Where the Rivers Run Gold resources to food and education are scarce for the majority of children and digital access is limited to the privileged few.  

Why write such a novel? Speculative fiction is often driven by the need writers have to tap into the communal consciousness, to be witness to the dangers that are ever present in our world. Kairos are lands seemingly in environmental species decline; devoid of trees, bees and other pollinators, a land where only the few have access to technology and books from closed libraries are pulped for precious, valuable paper…  

Such stories face harsh truths around censorship and inequality, often sending out echo-memories and reflections of some of the bleakest moments in human history, they do so to strike a warning note and invite readers to imagine different futures for our children. Their aim is to shine a light on the human spirit, and at their core they are invitation to come together as global communities to share resource as Book Aid International does. 

In the Kairos world, books are almost a thing of the past and whatever has been deemed useful and in keeping with the values of the profit orientated Ark Governments has been uploaded onto digital platforms. Other books, that may not be to their liking, are pulped, but there are pocket-sized libraries springing up in the most creative ways.  Shifa (meaning healing) and her little brother Themba (meaning courage) collect and preserve pages and, if they can find them – precious books – from the old libraries. These they share with others or gather in treasure boxes in their ‘story hive’.  

Here they had read contraband pages that they had discovered in unlikely places around the city, and with these finds their story hive had expanded into wild deserts, alien planets, raging rivers, bird and butterfly aviaries, the tallest snow-capped mountain ranges and the sweetest flowering meadows – a world away from the rules and regulations of Freedom Fields.

Page 57, Where the River Runs Gold

Why are books so precious in our world today? Why is it such a moving experience to make a visit with a refugee survivor from a country where books are censored, to the library and remember what a gift of freedom a library is? Censorship exists, deep inequality of resource exists, poverty, war and famine, environmental devastation and political dictatorship exist and can all mean that the object of the book becomes something deeply valuable and tangible to have and to hold and carry with us. In my latest novella Phoenix Brothers Amir, a refugee child from Iraq is given a small library of George Orwell’s books and these literally help him to find his voice.   

The physical book is increasingly important to me. I wrote a poem entitled ‘Notes in the margins’ (Magma 85 Poems for Schools) in which I spoke of the last precious book my father, a doctor, read in hospital before he died in which he expressed his hopes for a more egalitarian world. When I hold a book that has been read by many readers, I feel I am holding something of immense power in my hands, the book is a torch light that can beam into many hearts and minds across time and generations. I love that Book Aid International provides wind-up torches along with book collections.  

Themba and Shifa understand deeply that the pages that they find, preserve, read and learn off by heart and the information they glean from these pages, may give them access to knowledge that helps them survive and thrive in the future… and other stories can bring them pure pleasure and escapism  allowing them as they read to escape the harsh realities of their present lives in which they are child labourers.   

For those who say the book is redundant in our modern age I argue the exact opposite – the book is more precious now than ever… the range of books published across time, the book you come across by chance that you are drawn towards are vital.

The book collections – donated by publishers, curated by international librarians and educators that are transported to refugee camps, hospitals, communities and homes where books are scarce can be torch lights. Book Aid International’s act of nimbly creating a space for books and reading, like a story hive, a pod, or a forest library, amid some of the most challenging circumstances can be a hope-light.  

I have been moved to see children carry books that they found on their journeys seeking safety, books that seem to carry in their battered pages the traumatic journeys the children have travelled.

Visiting the Book Aid International warehouse with refugee survivor people who had been in the BidiBidi Refugee Camp in Uganda and read books provided by Book Aid International, is still one of my most moving experiences as an author.  

In this world of fast-moving soundbites, reactivity, swiftly changing social media posts and platforms and AI – the book provides us with a precious, deep, spacious and immersive opportunity to reflect on truth, to dream, to regenerate and to open portals of possibilities for humanity.  

In Shifa’s healing hands the fragments of the books she saves, she folds into origami seed packets of hope in which she collects rare seeds that go against the lie that the bees have disappeared. These book pages are set to pollinate minds, hearts and lands with Shifa and Themba’s wishes for the future where they dare to dream, believe and imagine a more egalitarian world. 

 Thank you to Sita for joining us at this year’s Hay Festival and for her on-going support. To find out more about Sita and all her books visit her her website.

Hay Festival photos (c) Sam Hardwick and Hay Festival

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