The Other Side of the Sky

The Other Side of the Sky is the memoir of Farah Ahmedi, written with Tamim Ansary. The following summary and analysis is based on the 2005 paperback edition published by Simon Spotlight Entertainment, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Ahmedi was born in Afghanistan in 1987 at the height of the war with the Soviet Union. She came to the US in 2002, when she was 14. She had only been in the US a few years when she entered and won a contest sponsored by ABC-TV’s Good Morning America to find a first-time author with a compelling American memoir. The Other Side of the Sky was published as a result of Ahmedi winning this national contest.

In the Prologue, Ahmedi shares that she wrote the book, despite being too young to have earned life wisdom yet, to share her journey as a refugee from war. Across 20 chapters, the book charts her journey to the US. It begins with background on her family history in Afghanistan and her early childhood in Kabul. Ahmedi steps on a landmine on her way to school when she is seven and is transported to a hospital in Germany where one leg is amputated and the other is fused straight. After a year and a half, she returns to Afghanistan, only to have a rocket explosion kill her father and sisters. Her brothers are forced to flee Afghanistan once the Taliban come to power shortly afterward, and Ahmedi and her mother also become refugees in Pakistan. After some time in Pakistan, they secure a spot in a World Relief organization program to resettle Afghan families in the US. The concluding chapters relate Ahmedi’s adjustment to being an adolescent in America.

The Other Side of the Sky highlights the plight of the Afghan refugee. It exposes the precarious condition endured by many refugees and immigrants. Ahmedi calls for compassion, education, and a hopeful and dignified approach to resolving human conflicts. The narrative reflects the literary trope of the hero’s journey as depicted in the mythologies of many cultures. The hero is called to purpose in a manner that singles her out from her people in some fashion. In this case, Ahmedi is exposed to a worldly awareness at a young age that fuels her hunger for knowledge and a broader understanding of humanity than is normally possible for a young girl in late-twentieth early-twenty-first century Afghanistan. Though called, the hero’s journey is filled with trials meant to test her faith and to reveal her true character. Ahmedi faces numerous trials as a refugee and responds with faith in Allah and strength of character. Her re-settlement in America allows her to realize the hero’s return to peace and stability. In this case, Ahmedi’s mother’s health is vastly improved, and for her part, Ahmedi is able to progress through a number of the typical American adolescent rites of passage—but with an enlightened appreciation of humanity’s fragility that is wise beyond her years and the fruit of her journey.