4 out of 5 stars
The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.
Immigration is in the news constantly at the moment. But the facts are often obscured by the various agendas that particular news agencies wish to push.
This story is about a group of Africans who are hoping to cross the straights of Gibraltar into Europe with the hope of making a new life there.
The narrator and his cousin are waiting in a café, and Red is crapping himself, so much so that the trafficker is threatening to leave him behind. They are an eclectic group of people, including one guy who has been deported three times from Europe, is still waiting to go back again. It was hard to say if it was nerves or the anticipation that was driving them.
Reda had a troubled upbringing and then suffered the tragic loss of his mother. It was to affect him deeply for the rest of his life.
Nura is bringing a baby with her, and the baby keeps crying, which worries the trafficker. They put both of them under an upturned boat, and the baby calms. She is hoping to find her husband in Europe; he has been there for a year now, but she has heard nothing from him. If she were to find him, she would give him the news that he was a father.
Yussef was waiting in the café because of a tragedy of his doing that had befallen his family. There was nothing left for him in Africa and no reason to stay.
The man mountain that was, Pafadnan, seemed calm and serene. Now he was suffering from some sort of seizure or panic attack, which was worrying to say the least. He is calmed by another member of the party.
Yarge had been employed by the rich white men and was working in a privileged position. Until one day, he wasn’t. He had saved all that he had earned to be able to make this trip.
For the group, waiting to travel is worse than travelling. The anticipation is cut short by the fear of being caught or the boat getting into trouble at sea. The narrator has time to look back over his past life, reliving the memories that were seared into his mind.
They are a snapshot of the people in Africa who are desperate enough to want to leave their present circumstances behind and who have been seduced by the promise of a better life in Europe. However, what they see in the media and online is utterly unlike the life that they will have should they make it across the straits. The moment comes, and the trafficker moves them into the boat. They are all holding onto that promise they made themselves about that new life in Europe.
This is a poignant book in lots of ways. It highlights just how desperate some people are to leave their current situation for all manner of reasons. They see the life that they could have in Europe, focusing on the good parts and ignoring the rumours and the bad stories that they hear. To make that change is to take an enormous risk at great cost. Not just financially, but emotionally, leaving behind a life they knew for one that holds all sorts of perils.
Quite how the author manages to portray all of this in such a short book is quite astonishing. In all this drama, he writes with compassion and empathy; we know this is one ending of their lives. He makes the tension palpable; I felt that I was waiting with them on the beach; their back stories add context and show us the reason why they have made this choice. But their fear of the unknown is evident in all the characters, too. It is a chance they would regret not taking. Well worth reading and can recommend reading it alongside We Came By Sea by Horatio Clare, which is real-life stories of boat people and the individuals they deal with as they try to settle in this country.
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