Powerful depiction of the refugee experience but at its core, a story about a couple’s relationship under incredible strain and their journey to reconnect after shared trauma

• Published: 2019
• Completed: 02/07/2023
• Pages: 378

It’s been a really long time since I have read a book that has moved me like this has. The final pages literally had me crying.

Lefteri‘s novel details the experience of husband and wife, Nuri and Afra as they travel from Syria to England in order to seek asylum. Along the way, we hear the stories of other fellow refugees as they struggle to maintain hope in the bleakest of situations.

The mechanics of the journey are masterfully interwoven with memories from their lives before war as well as a rich internal world imagined by Nuri to deal with the trauma of losing his son Sami.

Every character we encounter is complex and deep, intentionally incomplete and subsequently so real and intriguing. We empathise with characters, or fear the dangerous unknown motives of others.

There were times when I wondered if maybe the novel was taking too much artistic license – people don’t really talk and dream in this metaphorical manner – but I can forgive this as a literary device to reveal deeper emotions, and as an appeal to our sense of empathy.

Why did I cry though? It is overwhelming to me, the senselessness of war, its needless destruction of lives and the abhorrent cruelty of how we treat each other – so much so, that when there is hope, it seems so fragile that I am scared it may break.

“This is how the story must end; our hearts can bear no more loss.” P359

Quotes

“When you belong to someone and they are gone, who are you?” P86

“I would hold her face in my palms, kiss one eyelid, then the other. Part of me wished I could kill her with those kisses, put her to sleep forever. Her mind terrified me. What she could see, what she could remember, locked up behind her eyes.” P95

“There is so much silence here, but the silence is filled with chaos and madness.” P98

“You have to relax and turn into nature. Then you will be fine.” P100

“She felt like an animal, and how she realised that we are less human in our times of greatest love and greatest fear.” P240

Questions & Thoughts

“He hates the way non-Muslim men stand up to piss.” P5

Why did Nadim cut himself? P256

What happened to the boys? P258

Typography

Generic, matter of fact, but good attention to detail with typesetting on account of the way certain pages had to end and face for “jump cut” like edits between chapters / passages

New Words

• Abaya
• Fritillaries
• Muezzin
• Breads:
• Khubz
• Lakhma
• Keffiyeh
• Hoopoe
• Kol w shkor
• Kedjenou

Ratings

• Hayley: 8.5
• Kaye: 9
• Liz: 8.5
• Sarah: 8
• Sally: 8
• Thành: 9

Restaurant

The Ghan