Books and Book reading – What strange paradise by Omar El Akkad

This beautifully written, dramatic and moving novel reveals the global refugee crisis from a child’s point of view.

Another over-loaded, poorly equipped and maintained ship sinks under the weight of carrying too-many passengers. Syrians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Lebanese and Palestinians fleeing untenable lives in their homelands perish leaving only one survivor, nine-year-old Amir. He is a Syrian boy who is fortunately found by Vänna, a teenage girl born on the island. She lives with her own sense of homelessness in a place and with people she has grown to disdain. While Vänna and Amir are total strangers without a shared language she decides to do whatever it takes to save him.