BOOKMONGER
Global crisis through the eyes of a child
Book exposes ‘utterly insufficient humanity’
In 2015, when a boat carrying Syr-
the island for several generations, so
ian refugees bound for Europe fell
she feels like something of an outsider
apart in the stormy Mediterranean Sea
herself.
and most of those aboard drowned,
The story unspools in alternating
the body of a little boy washed up on
chapters. One strand covers the life
a Turkish beach. When the photo of
story of young Amir and how he winds
3-year-old Aylan Kurdi’s lifeless form
up on that fateful voyage. The other
was flashed around the world, there
piece focuses on the desperate maneu-
vers of Vanna and Amir as they try to
was a collective gasp of horror.
But the attention was short-lived,
avoid capture by Kethros and his men.
even though the humanitarian crisis
Some have likened El Akkad’s story
continues to this day. In the last eight
to the Peter Pan trope. Vanna might
years alone, according to the Missing
be seen as the maternal Wendy figure
Migrants Project, more than 21,000
and, with his prosthetic leg and relent-
less drive, Kethros is indeed a fear-
people have drowned in the Mediter-
some answer to Captain
ranean while trying to
Hook.
escape the conflict and
WHILE THIS
But in his young life
poverty in their home-
NOVEL
lands in Africa and the
as a refugee, Amir has
SUGGESTS
Middle East.
always been a follower
THAT
THERE
Portland author
by default, not a leader
Omar El Akkad is not
like Peter Pan.
MAY BE
going to let us look
Buffeted by the cruel
EMBERS OF
away. In “What Strange
blows
of geopolitical
COMPASSION
Paradise,” his latest
happenstance, he has
IN US ALL, IT
novel, the central char-
had little agency.
ALSO EXPOSES
acter is a Syrian kid,
And when one cyni-
THE UTTERLY
cal guide along the way
Amir, who at 9 years
old is the age Aylan
INSUFFICIENT spits out, “You thought
was enough. But
would have been today
HUMANITY OF away
it’s not. It never is,”
had he survived.
HUMANITY IN who is Amir to argue?
Amir looks younger
THE SYSTEMS
than his years. His fam-
“What Strange Par-
WE’VE BUILT
adise” is no allegory. It
ily had tried to reset-
tle in Egypt, but now he
TO DEAL WITH is the bitter truth, hap-
pening right now, not
appears to be the lone
THE GLOBAL
just in the Mediterra-
survivor after a boat-
MIGRATION
nean, but also down
load of refugees cap-
CRISIS.
sizes off the Greek
along the Rio Grande
island of Kos.
and in so many other
Like other countries along the
border regions around the world.
northern Mediterranean coastline,
El Akkad writes with heart-sear-
ing intensity. While this novel suggests
Greece has been grappling with the
that there may be embers of compas-
influx of undocumented immigrants.
sion in us all, it also exposes the utterly
The Greek army has dispatched sol-
diers under the command of Col. Dim- insufficient humanity of humanity in
itri Kethros to round up any refugees
the systems we’ve built to deal with
who make it to Kos.
the global migration crisis.
Amir, however, eludes their grasp
The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd
with the help of 15-year-old Vanna.
McMichael, who writes this weekly
Although island-born, Vanna is the
column focusing on the books, authors
granddaughter of Swedish immigrants
and publishers of the Pacific North-
west. Contact her at barbaralmcm@
in a place where — to be truly local
gmail.com.
— one’s family has to have been on
14 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
This
week’s
book
‘What
Strange
Paradise’
by Omar
El Akkad
Knopf –
256 pp —
$26