He is waiting for a green card so that he can go to America. When Sir Alfred discovers his point of origin, perhaps he will depart. Such is the Kafkaesque world he inhabits, you suspect it might all be true, except the bit about travelling by submarine from Sweden to Iran as a child. He swears he is not Iranian but was born in Sweden, the son of a British nurse. He was born Mehman Karimi Nasseria in Iran. Sir Alfred is not his real name, of course: it was something he adopted from a British bureaucratвЂ™s letter which began, вЂњDear Sir, AlfredвЂќ. Sir Alfred Mehran is sitting on his red bench in the middle of Charles de Gaulle airport, where he has been marooned for 16 years, waiting to leave. вЂњA profoundly disturbing and brilliant bookвЂќ

Instead of making a television interview about my situation of not having the correct documentation, I am arrested for not having the correct documentation. He says that I have to go with him to the police centre in the airport. вЂњThe lady journalist begins to argue with the policemen which only makes him more upset. Political refugee, prisoner, exile, rebel, gentleman, citizen of the world, media magnet and, most of all, delayed passenger, The Terminal Man tells Sir AlfredвЂ™s incredible and unique life storyвЂ¦ Fearing arrest as an illegal immigrant if he left the terminal building, he has spent the last two decades waiting вЂњfor my identityвЂќ while lawyers and government officials argued about his case. Without the proper documentation he quickly found himself trapped in a bureaucratic catch-22 nightmare. He arrived at Charles de Gaulle on 8th August 1988 intending to take a plane to London вЂ“ amazingly 20 years later he is still there waiting for his flight. He sleeps on a red bench borrowed from an old bar, dines at McDonalds every day, and is surrounded by piles of magazines stored in cargo boxes and his extensive diary. Sir Alfred has been living in the departure lounge of Terminal 1 of Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris for 16 years. This is the extraordinary true story of Mehran Karimi Nasseria, better known as вЂSir AlfredвЂ™- a man with no official identity or country. But wherever you are, you can know that right now, at this very moment, as your eyes are reading these words across the page вЂ“ as you read this word, that word, this word вЂ“ you can know that I am here sitting on my red bench from the Bye Bye Bar, in the middle of Charles de Gaulle airport, waiting to leave.вЂќ

вЂњPerhaps you are reading this book on a train? Perhaps you are sitting in a park? Perhaps you are in a library? I do not know where you are reading it.

The terminal man book