Escape from Manus Prison

One Man's Daring Quest for Freedom

By: Jaivet Ealom

Narrated by: Yusuf Zine

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 Viking

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

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.