This was such a powerful book, it really grabbed me and opened my eyes to a world that I hadn't really thought about before. It's written very poetically, comparing the flight of refugees to that of migrating birds, with similarities drawn between Sama and Hadi's difficult pasts to the present day. The chapters jump around in time a bit, but it's quite easy to follow. The emotions in the book are very real and raw and you can truly imagine the characters' stories. It's very clever to have written this story around Trump's announcement of banning travellers from certain Muslim countries in 2017, so it feels really current and shows you the human side behind the headlines.
The ending was a little disappointing for me, and left me wanting more - I would have preferred an epilogue section for 'one year later' which might have tied the ends up a bit more neatly. Having said that, I really enjoyed this book.
The ending was a little disappointing for me, and left me wanting more - I would have preferred an epilogue section for 'one year later' which might have tied the ends up a bit more neatly. Having said that, I really enjoyed this book.