Back in 2014 when this was published, the Syrian refugee crisis was still far from reaching the heights it would by the following autumn. (For comparison, Bauer here cites 75.000 arrivals in Europe over the first half of 2014, which at that time counted as a "massive number". Hindsight gives one a slightly different perspective.) Along with a photographer, journalist Wolfgang Bauer went undercover, posing as a refugee to accompany a group of Syrians attempting to cross from Egypt to Italy by boat. When after various setbacks, arrest and days in jail the journalists are deported to Turkey and abort their efforts to experience the gruelling, dangerous journey across the sea themselves, they remain in touch with some of their erstwhile companions, and the second half of the book recounts their harrowing but at last successful further attempts at reaching their hoped for destinations in Europe. If some of the people in charge had read this back in 2014 and (assuming they possessed the evidently too often lacking attribute of humanity) put in place a sensible, well-organized, large-scale programme to bring refugees to Europe legally and without risking their lives instead of hardening borders and making it impossible for them to reach safety without daring the so often lethal Mediterranean crossings, so much death and suffering could have been averted.