Escape from Manus Prison
One Man's Daring Quest for Freedom
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Narrated by:
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Yusuf Zine
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By:
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Jaivet Ealom
About this listen
2023 Heritage Toronto Award, Nominated
The awe-inspiring story of the only person to successfully escape Australia's notorious offshore detention center—and his long search for freedom.
In 2013 Jaivet Ealom fled Myanmar's brutal regime, where Rohingya like him were being persecuted and killed, and boarded a boat of asylum seekers bound for Australia. Instead of finding refuge, he was transported to Australia's infamous Manus Regional Processing Centre.
Blistering hot days spent in shipping containers on the island melted into weeks, then years . . . until, finally, facing either jail in Papua New Guinea or being returned to almost certain death in Myanmar, he took matters into his own hands. Drawing inspiration from the hit show Prison Break, Jaivet meticulously planned his escape. He made it out alive but was stateless, with no ID or passport. While the nightmare of Manus was behind him, his true escape to freedom had only just begun.
How Jaivet made it to sanctuary in Canada in a six-month-long odyssey by foot, boat, car, and plane, with nothing but his instinct for survival, is miraculous. His story will astonish, anger and inspire you. It will make you reassess what it means to give refuge and redefine what can be achieved by one man determined to beat the odds.
©2022 Jaivet Ealom (P)2022 VikingListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
NOMINATED FOR THE 2023 HERITAGE TORONTO AWARDS
“There are few things more rewarding than coming across a book you have never heard of and, from the opening sentence finding yourself well and truly hooked. [. . .] He takes you with him on a journey that reads like an adventure but for the gut-wrenching fear and constant deprivation he and his fellow travellers must endure. And which he so poignantly describes. It is a true tale of an asylum seeker, one man’s story of the 90 million men, women and children worldwide fleeing injustice, pestilence, war or famine in search of not just a better life but life itself. [. . .] Escape from Manus Prison gives a face to the faceless, that vast tide of humanity forcibly displaced.” —Oakville News
“Stunning. This book should be on every reading list in the country. Stateless, without papers and too often without a drop of water to drink, Jaivet Ealom escapes Myanmar and the Rohingya genocide that continues to destroy his people. From Jakarta to Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, in sinking boats and cargo planes, he lives by his wit. In this world, babies drop to the bottom of the ocean and men are caged, beaten, numbered. A chance reading of Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning restores his soul enough to get him, still undocumented, to Toronto. Ealom writes, ‘The choice of how I responded, or who I wished to be, was still my own to make.’ We share Ealom’s world, and this choice is ours too. Read this book. Know who you wish to be.” —Kim Echlin, award-winning author of Speak, Silence
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Story
When Hisham Matar was a 19-year-old university student in England, his father was kidnapped. One of the Qaddafi regime's most prominent opponents in exile, he was held in a secret prison in Libya. Hisham would never see him again. But he never gave up hope that his father might still be alive. "Hope," as he writes, "is cunning and persistent." Twenty-two years later, after the fall of Qaddafi, the prison cells were empty, and there was no sign of Jaballa Matar. Hisham returned with his mother and wife to the homeland he never thought he'd go back to again.
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Touching memoir. Consider hard copy
- By Joschka Philipps on 02-22-18
By: Hisham Matar
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Zeitoun
- By: Dave Eggers
- Narrated by: Firdous Bamji
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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When HurricaneKatrina struck New Orleans, Abdulrahman Zeitoun - a prosperous Syrian-American and father of four - chose to stay through the storm to protect his house and contracting business. In the eerie days after the storm, he traveled the flooded streets in a secondhand canoe, passing on supplies and rescuing those he could. A week later, on September 6, 2005, Zeitoun abruptly disappeared.
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Something bold, ebullient, yet quiet
- By Darwin8u on 10-08-13
By: Dave Eggers
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After the Monsoon
- An Ernst Grip Novel
- By: Robert Karjel
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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A Swedish army lieutenant drops dead on a shooting range in the desert. Was it an unfortunate accident - or something more nefarious? Ernst Grip, an agent of the Swedish security police, is sent to the Horn of Africa to find out. Once he’s on the ground, however, he quickly discovers he’s on his own. No one wants him snooping around - especially not the US Embassy’s CIA station. Which is no surprise, given that military transport planes are leaving from the base carrying untraceable pallets loaded with cash.
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Difficult book to review. Pulse-pounding? Not.
- By Richard Delman on 08-18-18
By: Robert Karjel
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Prisoner
- My 544 Days in an Iranian Prison—Solitary Confinement, a Sham Trial, High-Stakes Diplomacy, and the Extraordinary Efforts It Took to Get Me Out
- By: Jason Rezaian
- Narrated by: Jason Rezaian
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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The dramatic memoir of the journalist who was held hostage in a high-security prison in Tehran for 18 months and whose release - which almost didn’t happen - became a part of the Iran nuclear deal.
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Should have been much better given subject matter
- By Sample Sloth on 04-17-19
By: Jason Rezaian
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Cry Havoc
- By: Captain Simon Mann
- Narrated by: Captain Simon Mann
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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On March 7, 2004, former SAS soldier and mercenary Simon Mann prepared to take off from Harare International Airport. His destination was Equatorial Guinea; his intention was to remove one of the most brutal dictators in Africa in a privately organized coup d’état. The plot had the tacit approval of Western intelligence agencies, and Mann had already planned, overseen, and won two wars in Angola and Sierra Leone. So why did it go so wrong?
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Average
- By Miriam Majome on 08-23-15
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On Wings of Eagles
- By: Ken Follett
- Narrated by: Marcia Hyde, Larry Robinson, Ralph Williams, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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When two of his American employees were held hostage in a heavily guarded prison fortress in Iran, one man took matters into his own hands: American businessman H. Ross Perot. His team consisted of a group of volunteers from the executive ranks of his corporation, hand-picked and trained by a retired Green Beret officer. To free the imprisoned Americans, they would face incalculable odds on a mission that only true heroes would have dared.
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Was the narrator in a hurry?
- By Tammy on 06-19-08
By: Ken Follett
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Out of Captivity
- Surviving 1,967 Days in the Colombian Jungle
- By: Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, Tom Howes, and others
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Abridged
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In Out of Captivity, Gonsalves, Stansell, and Howes recount for the first time their amazing tale of survival, friendship, and, ultimately, rescue, tracing their five and a half years as hostages of the FARC. Their story takes you inside one of the world's most notorious terrorist organizations, going behind enemy lines with vivid and haunting imagery.
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Fascinating!
- By James C on 07-04-10
By: Marc Gonsalves, and others
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City of Thorns
- Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp
- By: Ben Rawlence
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Situated hundreds of miles from any other settlement, deep within the inhospitable desert of Northern Kenya, Dadaab is a city like no other. Its buildings are made from mud, sticks, or plastic; its entire economy is gray; and its citizens survive on rations and luck. Over the course of four years, Ben Rawlence became a firsthand witness to a strange and desperate limbo-land, getting to know many of those who have come there seeking sanctuary.
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Compelling but dry
- By Megan on 09-16-16
By: Ben Rawlence
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The Damage Done
- Twelve Years of Hell in a Bangkok Prison
- By: Warren Fellows
- Narrated by: David Tredinnick
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1978, Warren Fellows was convicted of heroin trafficking between Thailand and Australia. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in the notorious Bang Kwang prison - better known as the Bangkok Hilton. It was the beginning of 12 years of hell in a place where sewer rats and cockroaches are the only nutritious food, where prison guards laugh as they deliver pulverising blows, and where the worst punishment is the khun deo - solitary confinement, Thai style.
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Remarkable -- in every way! Every minute is great
- By Eric Schurr on 12-05-13
By: Warren Fellows
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Eichmann in My Hands
- A First-Person Account by the Israeli Agent Who Captured Hitler's Chief Executioner
- By: Peter Z. Malkin, Harry Stein
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1960 Argentina, a covert team of Israeli agents hunted down the most elusive war criminal alive: Adolf Eichmann, chief architect of the Holocaust. The young spy who tackled Eichmann on a Buenos Aires street - and fought every compulsion to strangle the Obersturmführer then and there - was Peter Z. Malkin. For decades Malkin's identity as Eichmann's captor was kept secret. Here he reveals the entire breathtaking story - from the genesis of the top-secret surveillance operation to the dramatic public capture and smuggling of Eichmann to Israel to stand trial.
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Excellent the first person account
- By Barrett Francescatti on 02-09-22
By: Peter Z. Malkin, and others
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Adolfo Kaminsky
- A Forger's Life
- By: Sarah Kaminsky, Mike Mitchell
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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At the age of 17, Adolfo Kaminsky had narrowly escaped deportation to Auschwitz and was living in Nazi-occupied Paris, using forged documents to hide in plain sight. Due to his expert knowledge of dyes and his ability to masterfully reproduce official documents with an artistic eye, he was recruited to join the Jewish underground. He soon became the primary forger for the Resistance in Paris, working tirelessly with his network to create papers that would save an estimated 14,000 men, women, and children from certain death.
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Incredible!
- By Mareo McCracken on 04-28-17
By: Sarah Kaminsky, and others
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Taking Morgan
- A Political Thriller
- By: David Rose
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Morgan Cooper has always found it difficult to balance her home life - mother of two young children and wife of a workaholic civil rights lawyer - with her work life as an undercover CIA officer. When Morgan gets stressed, anxious, or scared, whether at home or in the field, she tends to talk to herself until she can clear her head. This habit, though, puts her life in danger during an assignment in the strife-torn Gaza Strip.
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unrealistic
- By Coverdale on 08-09-22
By: David Rose
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The Shattered Lens
- A War Photographer's True Story of Captivity and Survival in Syria
- By: Jonathan Alpeyrie, Stash Luczkiw
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Capturing history was Jonathan Alpeyrie's job, but he never expected to become a news story himself. For a decade, the French-American photojournalist weaved in and out of over a dozen conflict zones. But, during his third assignment to Syria, Alpeyrie was betrayed by his fixer and handed over to a band of Syrian rebels. For 81 days, he was bound, blindfolded, and beaten. Over the course of his captivity, Alpeyrie kept his spirits up and strived to see, without his camera lenses, the humanity in his captors.
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Everyone should read this
- By Magdoll on 11-14-18
By: Jonathan Alpeyrie, and others
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The Railway Man
- By: Eric Lomax
- Narrated by: Bill Paterson
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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A naive young man, a railway enthusiast and radio buff, was caught up in the fall of the British Empire at Singapore in 1942. He was put to work on the 'Railway of Death' - the Japanese line from Thailand to Burma. Exhaustively and brutally tortured by the Japanese for making a crude radio, Lomax was emotionally ruined by his experiences.
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From hatred to forgiveness
- By 9S on 05-04-12
By: Eric Lomax
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They Said They Wanted Revolution
- A Memoir of My Parents
- By: Neda Toloui-Semnani
- Narrated by: Neda Toloui-Semnani
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1979, Neda Toloui-Semnani’s parents left the United States for Iran to join the revolution. But the promise of those early heady days in Tehran was warped by the rise of the Islamic Republic. With the new regime came international isolation, cultural devastation, and profound personal loss for Neda. Her father was arrested and her mother was forced to make a desperate escape, pregnant and with Neda in tow.
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I learned so much. Great pacing, felt like I time-traveled
- By Jess Fuchs on 02-07-22
What listeners say about Escape from Manus Prison
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- AG
- 09-04-22
Astonishing, gripping story
Riveting, harrowing, inspiring and moving. The story recounts horrific struggles, cruelty and suffering but also compassion, strength and humour. It is well worth your while. The narration is good as well.
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