Waiting for Dawn

The scene is a familiar one for anyone that has traveled to Italy: one moment a street vendor is whistling tourists over to inspect fake designer handbags, spread over a white sheet on the ground, and the next he is flipping up the corners of the sheet, tossing the bags in, slinging it over his shoulder and running away from the police. Some ten minutes later, he returns to the same place, ready to repeat the ritual again. "Waiting for Dawn" follows Wani and Binata, two Burundian refugee newlyweds who escape a refugee camp in Tanzania and set off for a better life in Europe. After surviving the Sahara, they attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea, a journey where thousands of asylum seekers lose their lives every year. Nothing in the journey goes as planned, however, as their crowded, rickety fishing boat is interdicted at sea and they are placed in detention-an invention of western countries to keep immigrants out. After escaping and arriving in Florence, a new set of challenges awaits them as they join countless other African immigrants in learning to sell fake designer bags to tourists on the street. Was this the better life they had dreamed of and will they manage to make the new life they sought? Through Wani and Binata's struggles, the novel sheds light on the challenges and vulnerabilities so many migrants face every day. It questions common assumptions about the many irregular migrants arriving in Europe and elsewere around the world in search of refuge and a better life.