Malala signs We Are Displaced with W&N;
Weidenfeld & Nicolson is publishing a new book by Pakistani female rights activist Malala Yousafzai this year - five years on from the publication of her internationally bestselling memoir I Am Malala (W&N).
Her new book is entitled We Are Displaced and will introduce readers to "what it means to lose your home, your community, and the only world you’ve ever known", drawing on her own story of displacement as well as the personal stories of other girls she has met on her visits of refugee camps.
Weidenfeld & Nicolson will publish We Are Displaced in hardback, audio and e-book on 4th September 2018. Jenny Lord, publishing director for Weidenfeld & Nicolson non-fiction, and Farrin Jacobs, editorial director for Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in the US, acquired world English language rights from Karolina Sutton at Curtis Brown.
Malala, now aged 20 and based in the UK, became the youngest Nobel Prize laureate at the age of 17 after an attempt was made on her life by the Taliban for her activism in support of female education when she was only aged 15. She was shot in the head on her way home from school in October 2012 but survived. One year on she gave a speech to the United Nations and published her autobiography, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, which became an international bestseller.
To date in the UK, according to Nielsen BookScan, the book has sold 328,684 copies for £2.47m. Last October Yousafzai also released a children's book with Puffin, illustrated by Sebastien Cosset and Marie Pommepuy, called Malala's Magic Pencil, telling her story to a younger audience. It has since sold 5,321 copies in paperback.
In her new book she will share others' stories, focusing on the different parts of each girl’s experience, from what it was like the day she left her home to what daily life is like in a refugee camp.
"What tends to get lost in the current refugee crisis is the humanity behind the statistics," explained Yousafzai. "We hear about millions of refugees, hundreds of migrants trapped on a boat or in a truck, but it’s only when a truly shocking image appears in the news that people consider what’s really going on.
"I know what it’s like to leave your home and everything you know. I know the stories of so many people who have had to do the same. I hope that by sharing the stories of those I have met in the last few years I can help others understand what’s happening and have compassion for the millions of people displaced by conflict."
According to W&N, the sharing of these "urgent" stories will serve as an important reminder that "everyone deserves universal human rights and a home".
Lord said: "There has never been a better time to gain a greater understanding of the experience of displacement, which affects so many people in so many ways. These stories that Malala has chosen to share with us feel urgent and vital, and We Are Displaced is a potent reminder that we must do everything in our power to protect the universal right to a home for everyone."
The author's net sales proceeds from the book will go to the Malala Fund, the non-profit she co-founded with her father to help ensure girls around the world can get a secondary education.