What is it like closing your front door and knowing you’ll never open it again? How does it feel to wake up in a strange country, remembering everything you’ve lost? What do parents say to their kids?  And how on earth do you start again?

Most of us will hopefully never have the experience of being a refugee. But books can help us understand what it might be like. Through the page, we can reach out and touch another’s experience, or take a hike with them through the mountains and valleys of their imagination.

Here are some places to look for books about the experience of having to leave your home:

Books about exile for adults, list by Refugee Week

Fiction books for children and young people, list by Refugee Week

Books about refugees and asylum seekers for children and young people, BookTrust

Pick one and search your local library, bookshop or online for a copy. Read it alone, with friends or at a book club. Journey through its pages and, if you like where it takes you, pass it on or recommend to a friend. You could even write a book review.

Whatever you do, let us know what you’ve read and what you thought by sharing on social media using #SimpleActs, or emailing us.