My first book, The Naked Don’t Fear the Water, has been out since February and I’m thrilled by how’s it been received by critics and readers, starting with this generous, perceptive review by Jessica Goudeau in the New York Times Book Review, where it was also an Editor’s Choice:
It has become a cliché to state that a book is “urgent” or “necessary” when it touches on a critical humanitarian issue; almost any book about Afghan migrants would be important right now. But this book is exceptionally well done. That’s primarily due to Aikins’s painstaking, unflinching portrayals. In refusing to make saints or sinners of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances, Aikins crafts an expansive, immersive work that reads like the most gripping novel but is all the more compelling because the events are both true and ongoing.
It’s also been reviewed by the Guardian, the Economist, the Christian Science Monitor, the New Yorker, the Financial Times, the Scotsman, the Spectator, Dawn, and was named one of TIME’s “Best Books of 2022 So Far.”
That’s in addition to the response to the French, Spanish and Dutch versions. I was lucky to be invited to Paris and Amsterdam for book events and it’s been interesting to see how much closer to home the story is for a European audience. The German, Polish, and Czech translations are due out later this year, and I’ll be back in Europe in the fall for more book events—stay tuned on social media.