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Dayton Literary Peace Prize Finalist
Clara Johnson Award FinalistAs hundreds of thousands of displaced people sought refuge in Europe, the global relief system failed. This is the story of the volunteers who stepped forward to help.In 2015, increasing numbers of refugees and migrants, most of them fleeing war-torn homelands, arrived by boat on the shores of Greece, setting off the greatest human displacement in Europe since WWII. As journalists reported horrific mass drownings, an ill-prepared and seemingly indifferent world looked on. Those who reached Europe needed food, clothing, medicine, and shelter, but the international aid system broke down completely.
All Else Failed is Dana Sachs’s compelling eyewitness account of the successes—and failures—of the volunteer relief network that emerged to meet the enormous need. Closely following the odysseys of seven individual men and women, and their families, it tells a story of despair and resilience, revealing the humanity within an immense humanitarian disaster.
About the author
Dana Sachs is a journalist, novelist, and cofounder of the nonprofit Humanity Now: Direct Refugee Relief, which supports grassroots teams providing aid to displaced people. A former Fulbright Scholar, she is the author of three works of nonfiction, The House on Dream Street: Memoir of an American Woman in Vietnam; The Life We Were Given: Operation Babylift, International Adoption, and the Children of War in Vietnam; and All Else Failed: The Unlikely Volunteers at the Heart of the Migrant Aid Crisis, as well as the novels If You Lived Here and The Secret of the Nightingale Palace. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including the Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, and Mother Jones. Sachs lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Summary
As hundreds of thousands of displaced people sought refuge in Europe, the global relief system failed. This is the story of the volunteers who stepped forward to help.
In 2015, increasing numbers of refugees and migrants, most of them fleeing war-torn homelands, arrived by boat on the shores of Greece, setting off the greatest human displacement in Europe since WWII. As journalists reported horrific mass drownings, an ill-prepared and seemingly indifferent world looked on. Those who reached Europe needed food, clothing, medicine, and shelter, but the international aid system broke down completely.
All Else Failed is Dana Sachs’s compelling eyewitness account of the successes—and failures—of the volunteer relief network that emerged to meet the enormous need. Closely following the odysseys of seven individual men and women, and their families, it tells a story of despair and resilience, revealing the humanity within an immense humanitarian disaster.
Foreword
Co-op availableSignificant bound galley mailing to media, booksellers, and librarians. Additional digital review copy distribution to media, booksellers, and librarians through EdelweissNational print, public radio, and online media campaigns, including outreach to advocacy groups and special campaigns surrounding World Refugee Day (June 20) and International Migrants Day (December 18)Author statement available in press materialAuthor appearances in Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco, CA; New York, NY; Wilmington, NC; Memphis, TN; and more TBD, partnering with refugee rights and aid organizations, including the author’s nonprofit Humanity NowSimultaneous eBook publication and promotionPostcards availableEarly outreach and giveaways through LibraryThingPromotion through BLP’s social media channels and website: www.blpress.orgPromotion through the author’s website (www.danasachs.com) and social media channels, including Facebook (@dana.sachs.3)Editor: Erika GoldmanAgent: Douglas Stewart of Sterling Lord LiteristicCover designer: Emily MahonMarketing and publicity efforts supported by Molly Mikolowski of A Literary Light
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Advance Praise for All Else Failed
“Dana Sachs’s vivid, passionate book will shake any faith you once had in international aid organizations. But it will move and inspire you, and bring a lump to your throat, by its portraits of big-hearted women and men from many countries who jumped in to help fellow human beings caught up in one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of our time.” —Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost and To End All Wars
“An urgent, deeply researched, and tender account of the helpers: refugee crisis volunteers (often formerly displaced) who arrive when those responsible for the chaos have turned their backs. Vital, and often infuriating, it is at once global in scale and absolutely singular. This is a story about the drive to nurture and care for our fellow humans, one that stirs us all.” —Dina Nayeri, author of The Ungrateful Refugee
Select Praise for Dana Sachs’s Previous Nonfiction
On The Life We Were Given: Operation Babylift, International Adoption, and the Children of War in Vietnam
“One of the bravest and most wrenching books I have read about the war.” —Tom Bissell
“Exquisitely written, full of breathtaking suspense.” —Clyde Edgerton
“Deeply compelling and deftly researched.” —Meredith Hall
“A work of great compassion and scope.” —Andrew X. Pham
“Well-researched, deeply moving . . . sensitive and nuanced.” —Library Journal
“Raises important and timely questions.” —Kirkus Reviews
On The House on Dream Street: Memoir of an American Woman in Vietnam
“Candid and large-hearted.” —Elle
“Part memoir, part travelogue. . . . Reads like a novel.” —Washington Post
“Poignant.” —Charlotte Observer
“Proves that the language of the heart can leap social and political bounds.” —Lexington Herald-Leader
“Engrossing.” —Publishers Weekly
“Vividly detailed.” —Kirkus Reviews
