This collection of photos is disturbing, wrenching, and (one might hope) politically galvanizing. Here you will find photos of refugees of all ages, from all over the world, from a vast panoply of distinct cultures, languages, religions, etc. The only two things shared by all are their pain, and their humanity.Right at the very beginning of the book, there are over twenty pages of stark black and white photographs. If you were leafing through these pages, it would be very easy to conclude that there was no text or table of contents, and to give up in despair. Therefore, I am telling you now, there IS a table of contents, and several accompanying essays as well. You can find them, starting around twenty pages into the book.Judith Kumin is the official representative for the UNHCR, (that's the United Nations High Commission for Refugees -- why not try to locate their website right now? I'll wait...), in Germany. Kumin has contributed a foreword, in which she outlines the overall situation of today's global refugees. She articulates the aim of the book, which is NOT to put the misery of the refugees on display. The photographs are intended to show "the faces of refugees, laughing and crying... their mourning and their pride, their hope and their despair." It is hoped that this approach will help to convey the basic human dignity of these dispossessed people, and engender sympathy for their situation.Journalist Hans Christophe Buch contributes another introductory essay, which helps set the mood for the book. In a concluding essay, photographer/editor Mark Sealy encourages us to ponder these photographs, and the ways that the people in them so heroically cope with intolerable conditions.The body of the book presents photos of refugees coming from or seeking asylum in, eleven nations. These nations (or regions) include Rwanda, Chechnya, Liberia, Cuba, Germany, the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Mexico, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, and Poland. Each photo essay is preceded by an introductory chronology, which places the region in historical context.Many of these images will stay with you for some time. You will see an anonymous Chechnyan man happily playing with his dog, while four enormous, blood-drenched, turreted, expropriated former Soviet tanks brood forebodingly in the background... You will look into the eyes of a little girl from Afghanistan, resting on her cheap army cot. She had stepped on a land mine some time in her past, and is resting in the photo because she has become tired, after practicing walking with her new prosthetic limbs... You will encounter a young African man in a German detention cell, awaiting word from the govermnment on his refugee status. As he peers out of his barred window, a small television set in his cell shows wild horses gamboling about, frisking their manes, and running free...Several of the most striking photos are not necessarily what you might consider to be particularly artistic. They get their power simply from the impact of seeing acres, and acres, and acres of dirty little tents, spread out across dry, dusty plains, in the most inhospitable parts of the world.This book is a gripping testament, and deserves to find its way to coffee tables throughout the world. It's nice having a home to store a coffee table in, eh?Please buy this book, and spend time thinking about its messages.