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.
Dayton Literary Peace Prize Finalist
Clara Johnson Award Finalist
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.
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
