I can hardly begin to describe to you what I saw as our boat approached the source of that terrible noise. I hardly want to. You won"t understand because you weren"t there. You can"t understand. You see, I thought I"d heard seagulls screeching. Seagulls fighting over a lucky catch. Birds. Just birds." Emma-Jane Kirby has reported extensively on the reality of mass migration today. In The Optician of Lampedusa she brings to life the moving testimony of an ordinary man whose late summer boat trip off a Sicilian island unexpectedly turns into a tragic rescue mission.