2021 Giller Finalist Book Review: What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad
What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad is a devastating work of fiction that speaks to a reality that is all too true. As a journalist, originally from Egypt, El Akkad is well informed about the horrors of the refugee crisis. Since around 2014, news outlets have reported images of men, women, and children fleeing through Turkey and crossing the sea in makeshift dinghies and rafts to flee their home countries of Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and more. In What Strange Paradise, the author reveals not only the desperation, the fear, the exhaustion, the confusion, and the loss that too many displaced people experience around the globe, but he also reflects on the xenophobia that awaits them in the European Union and in the west.
The novel opens on the shores of a Greek island. Bodies from a recent shipwreck litter the beach outside a local tourist resort. Vacationers breakfast in the hotel restaurant as soldiers canvas the area. Should there be any survivors, they will be taken to a local detention center—an over-crowded building with few resources and little dignity. Amir, a young boy from Damascus separated from his family, is sprawled on the sand near the surf. Surrounded by soldiers, he runs on instinct for the cover of trees. From here, the novel’s plot oscillates between the journey that brought Amir and others across the sea on a rickety fishing vessel and his evasion from capture once he washes onto the shore of this “strange paradise.”
The prose in What Strange Paradise is lyrical; such beautiful writing makes the distressing narrative even more heart-breaking. Descriptive details ignited the senses and elicited a visceral response from this reader that the chasm between fiction and nonfiction blurred. The pace is fast, and the tension is masterfully crafted throughout. Given its length, many readers will likely find it hard to put this book down. Others, however, may need to take breaks to reflect, to recalibrate. Despite the novel’s advocacy of friendship as the antidote to dehumanization and apathy, the ending offers little hope.
Lately, reports of displacement seem to be less newsworthy, but El Akkad won’t let us forget; his novel invites readers to look, to see, to know, and to do better. For those of us privileged enough to have never been forced from our homes, What Strange Paradise is necessary reading; it is an exceptional book.
What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad McClelland & Stewart, 2021, pp. 235 ISBN: 978-0-7710-5030-5