The World Is Not Big Enough is the story of one woman squo;s journey to understand the human cost of a broken system. At once an investigation into the murder of a refugee and an exploration of Australians' collective guilt, The World Is Not Big Enough explores the ways we are all hurt by Australiahsquo;s migration policies and their history.
In 2013, on a whim Vanessa Russell googled Ahmad Shah Abed, an Afghan asylum seeker she had exchanged letters with a decade earlier, to find he had been murdered in 2009. The news came as a shock. Ahmad had been living in detention in Port Hedland when Vanessa had first started writing to him as a student hoping to do some good. Their relationship had been brief but impactful. After all these years, Vanessa couldnlsquo;t shake the feeling that she had failed him. With the news of Ahmad Shahdsquo;s murder, Vanessa realised she needed to find answers.
The World Is Not Big Enough tracks Vanessatsquo;s journey as she tries determinedly to unravel what happened to Ahmad Shah and why. Deeply felt and superbly written, the book travels with Vanessa to Port Hedland, Christmas Island and Perth as she interviews Ahmad Shahisquo;s friends, fellow refugees, refugee advocates, support workers, people who worked in detention centres, and spends a year talking with the murderer himself. What she uncovers is the multilayered and often untold story of detention in Australian and its very human consequences.
