In January 2016 Richard Flanagan and Ben Quilty travelled to Lebanon, Greece, and Serbia to follow the river that is the exodus of our age: that of refugees from Syria. Flanagan’s ‘notes’ and Quilty’s sketches bear witness to the remarkable people they met on that journey and their stories.

These individual portraits from the Man Booker Prize-winning author and Archibald Prizeuwinning artist combine to form a powerful testament to human dignity and courage in the face of war, death, and suffering.

Refugees are not like you and me. They are you and me. That terrible river of the wretched and the damned flowing through Europe is my family.