Wolfgang Bauer

Crossing the Sea: With Syrians on the Exodus to Europe

Award-winning journalist Wolfgang Bauer and photographer Stanislav Krupař were the first undercover reporters to document the journey of Syrian refugees from Egypt to Europe. Posing as English teachers in 2014, they were direct witnesses to the brutality of smuggler gangs, the processes of detainment and deportation, the dangers of sea-crossing on rickety boats, and the final furtive journey through Europe. Combining their own travels with other eyewitness accounts in the first book of reportage of its kind, Crossing the Sea brings to life both the systemic problems and the individual faces behind the crisis, and is a passionate appeal for more humanitarian refugee policies.

Read an Excerpt
EBook: £8

More Info

  • Find out more about Wolfgang Bauer in our authors’ section.
  • Read a fascinating Newsweek profile about Wolfgang Bauer and his journey with Syrian refugees.
  • Read an interview in The Skinny with Wolfgang Bauer and fellow German journalist Jürgen Todenhöfer.
  • Bauer won the 2016 Liberty Award for his work on Crossing the Sea. You can watch a short Liberty Award video about the book here.
  • Harper’s featured an extract from Crossing the Sea. You can read it here.
  • Take a look at the author’s website here and the photographer’s website here.
  • Crossing the Sea is a bestseller in Germany, with over 25,000 copies sold around the world. And Other Stories are delighted to be able to bring Wolfgang Bauer and Stanislav Krupař’s groundbreaking work to the English language.
  • Crossing the Sea was the 2018 City Read book during Migration Matters festival in Sheffield, the City of Sanctuary that And Other Stories is proud to call home. During the festival, And Other Stories gave away 600 copies through cafés and libraries.
Print status: Available
Translator: Sarah Pybus
Original language: German
Format: Hardback
Publication date (UK): 24 March 2016
Publication date (US): 12 April 2016
ISBN: 9781908276827
Ebook ISBN: 9781908276834
Availability: World
Number of pages: 144

Reviews

Robert Fisk
The Independent

‘It’s not just the detail in this book that counts. It’s the anger.’

Melissa Fleming, Spokesperson and Head of Communications, UNHCR

‘An excellent book.’

Daniel Trilling
Times Literary Supplement

‘Bauer’s book . . . exemplifies the best qualities of immersive journalism . . . his brave investigation tells us an important truth about the refugee experience.’

Caroline Moorehead
The New Statesman

‘Bauer excellently re-creates the predatory, tense world of these shadowy men . . . the people-smugglers.’

Hsiao-Hung Pai
Open Democracy

‘What Crossing the Sea does best is give a face to the dehumanised ‘refugee crisis’ that we read about in everyday news headlines . . . [W]hen there is a human face behind the news story, it is impossible to turn your attention away from it.’

Nell Zink

‘Wolfgang Bauer is a sophisticated and conscientious reporter, an expert on the Arab Spring and its aftermath, and a brilliant writer.’