'I am three years old and will have to grow up with the hostility of others. I am already an outlaw in my own country, an outlaw in the world. I am three years old, and I don't yet know that I am stateless.'

Habiburahman is born and raised in a small village in western Burma. When he is three years old, the country's military leader declares that his people, the Rohingya, are not one of the eight recognised 'national races'. He is left stateless in his own country.

Since 1982, millions of Rohingya have had to flee their homes as a result of extreme prejudice and persecution. In 2016, the government began a process of ethnic cleansing and over 600,000 Rohingya people were forced to cross the border into Bangladesh.

Here, for the first time, a Rohingya speaks up to expose the truth behind this global humanitarian crisis. Through the eyes of a child, we learn about the historic persecution of the Rohingya people and witness the violence Habiburahman endures throughout his life until he escapes the country in 2001.

First, They Erased Our Name is an urgent, moving memoir about what it feels like to be repressed in one's own country and a refugee in others. It gives voice to the voiceless.

In the jungle of Burma, the Zomi tribe lives modestly and peacefully. Thazama is a young, intrepid Zomi who loves hunting and playing games with his friend Moonpi. But the ensuing bloodbath of the 1988 Burmese revolution changes everything, making them hostages in their own country. Military forces impose strict rule over the people, demanding food and rations, men and women, many of whom will never return. Yet Thazama knows his destiny is to fight for freedom, and once initiated into adulthood he and Moonpi head for the great city of Mandalay, where Thazama continues on his road of no return on a harrowing journey through Southeast Asia, further and further from home.