In “Friday is a good day to flee”, Elyas Jamalzadeh, who was born in Iran as an Afghan refugee, processes his life-threatening journey to Europe. He wrote down his story together with Andreas Hepp. It is about arriving, the longing for belonging, but also about cruelty, great fear and the unconditional will to survive. The result is an impressive “road movie” novel with a remarkably humorous undertone.
Jamalzadeh’s parents fled from Afghanistan to Tehran even before he was born, where the family, who have no rights there, are trying to get by with undeclared work and with the help of friends and relatives. It’s snowing on his birthday, he doesn’t know the exact date. As a seven-year-old he had to work as a street vendor, and he was denied regular school attendance without papers. Finally, the family decides to flee to Europe. He says “not so that you have pity”, because: “Many people in the world are the same or worse. Other people also have to suffer, flee, die, drown. I’m only telling you this so that you understand where I come from .”
The fact that the narrator does not want pity from the reader runs through the whole book. The bitter setbacks on the run, the greedy smugglers, nights in nasty prisons and cold, damp forests, violence at the hands of border guards, the constant uncertainty and the frighteningly vividly portrayed crossing of the Mediterranean are told in a light, sometimes even casual tone. The narrator breaks the growing dismay with bad jokes, for example when the father disappears without a trace. “Forever”, but then it says: “Okay wait, I was just kidding you. Haha, you should have seen your face!” As a reader, you have an oral narrator in front of you who addresses you directly: “Imagine you’ve been nervous your whole life. You notice everything. You’re constantly on guard. (…) I was nervous. I was born nervous.”
The difficult journey takes Jamalzadeh and his parents through Turkey, Greece, North Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia and finally – in the trunk of a car – to Austria, for which Jamalzadeh is full of praise. “Guys, learn to appreciate what you have in this country!” It says. He reports how he fought to go to school with supporters, survived a brain tumor, determinedly found a job in a hairdressing salon and, with some tenacity, tried to learn the German language – distance learning by telephone. “Actually everyone is fleeing,” says Jamalzadeh, even if the Austrian, as he notes, only “from the license fee inquisitor.”
The book was created together with Andreas Hepp, a teacher friend of mine in Linz. He noted, sorted and formulated the narrated experiences for a book, for which he would deserve a mention on the cover. According to Jamalzadeh, it was particularly difficult to talk about the Mediterranean crossing: “You have your death in mind. You have your parents’ death in mind. And you can’t do anything about it.” That’s exactly why the two wanted to write the book: “To show you practically what it’s like when someone flees and has to fight for their life.” Today Jamalzadeh is married to an Austrian, a trained hairdresser and probably finally arrived.
(SERVICE – Elyas Jamalzadeh: “Friday is a good day to escape”, recorded by Andreas Hepp, Zsolnay Verlag, 256 pages, 22 euros)