Welcome to Litsy!

An Afghan family escape Kabul, through Pakistan, then on an overloaded boat to #Nauru, the holding island for refugees to #Australia. Told from a preteen girl, she experiences such hardship often unknowing how much worse it could be. So many thing were special about this book: 1) the plight of refugees everywhere, 2) told from the perspective of a child, 3) revealing Australia faces a refugee crisis like the rest of the world and handling it ⬇️

Wow, this book was a punch in the gut. I can‘t believe more people aren‘t talking about this book about refugees in #Australia and #Nauru

#ReadingOceania2024 @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

The dedication for the tagged book. An ominous start. #Nauru #ReadingOceania2024 @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

Up next for #Nauru #ReadingOceania2024 @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

This was a heart-wrenching novel about Firuzeh and her family who leave Afghanistan with the ‘help‘ of people-traffickers, hoping to reach a better life in Australia.

I read this for #readingoceania24 #nauru as the family spend some time in a Detention Centre on the island whilst they are processed by the Australian government. Whilst only about a 1/4 of the book, this was by far the most impactful part. 😞

My March wrap up.

I had three bails as well (that‘s a lot for me):
China Dolls and On Gold Mountain by Lisa See and The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy.

Don‘t you just love weekends?

E Lily Yu brought me right in with this story of escaping war in Afghanistan to immigrate to Australia from the point of view of a young sister and brother. It‘s a journey full of trials and tragedy and brutality.
I felt the frustration of the parents who paid for the entire trip, yet found the family on a rickety boat then in a detention center.

This isn‘t an easy read, but beauty balanced the sadness.

What a beautiful to read outdoors! I‘m loving my #currentread! Why haven‘t I seen more people talking about this one?

What a lovely surprise @Kaylamburson ! Thank you for thinking of me 😊. I‘m looking forward to reading this, and I love the kitty bookmark. You‘re so sweet. ❤️

A lyrical, compassionate novel about hope and despair, following the fortunes of a family bound for Australia in order to escape persecution and death in Afghanistan. While this novel is described as magic realist on the jacket, it wears that element lightly, through a ghost who makes occasional appearances.

Mrs Sing was born decades after war swept through Hong Kong. Nevertheless, war had left deep handprints across her life. Her grandfather, gasping himself awake. Her father, scarred with secondhand terror, biting and snapping like a beaten dog. And now her classroom was full of children from a different war.
(Internet photo)

The writer stared out, her head turned away. One thumb worried the notebook in her lap.
“I asked the wrong questions, didn‘t I?”
“If I were you,” Sister Margaret said, “I‘d have asked about joy. When you have nothing and no reason to hope, when the odds are impossible and not one but two governments stand against you, how do you laugh? How do you see beauty? How do you still show kindness and love?”

Moonlight washed the gnawed coral pinnacles, frosted the skeletal phosphate cranes, and drenched the canvas tents where a hundred dreamers dreamed gray, grim, and miserable dreams. The sky was salted with stars.

While Muslim identity permeates this story of Hazara refugees from Afghanistan—mullah jokes, women wrapping a scarf over their hair, etc—it remains much in the background. Instead, individual personalities are in the forefront.

Thus far they had not needed much medicine, since hope hope had done triple duty as amulet, tonic, and prophylactic.

This book is so sad! I decided I needed to take a break and eat something sweet.

Beginnings and endings sank like stones through the mind.

-So why did your family leave Afghanistan?
-They won‘t tell me.
-Won‘t tell you!
-Abay says I don‘t need to know.
-But you do! We need reasons like we need water or air.

There‘s a fantasy genre spine label on this library book, but, so far, its story of an Afghan refugee family‘s journey seems realistic. Also, it just sent me down an internet rabbit hole because I hadn‘t previously known about the Mandaean religion.

Got my latest recommendations from Book Riot for #getTBR

My bibliologist changed for some reason, but I really like the sound of all these, so it might be for the better. I hope they don‘t disappoint! Had anyone read any of these?

I read and reviewed On Fragile Waves about a year ago, but since it just published this past month, I'm sharing again because it was such an amazing book.

Refugees from Afghanistan land in Australia and instead of the welcome they're expecting, they are transported to an island that is a holding camp, most definitely based on the Nauru Processing Centre designated as part of the "Pacific Solution" by the Australian government to limit/prevent asylum seekers from hitting the mainland. ↘️

Another book idea for #readingAsia2021 as a family leaves Afghanistan, crossing Asia, to try to find refuge in Australia. Looks like it was just released today. @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

This book doesn't release until Fall 2020, but I just finished it, and I'm blown away. Literary, lyrical, and heartbreakingly beautiful, ON FRAGILE WAVES tells the story of one Persian family taking all the risks to escape the war and government in Afghanistan with the hope of finding asylum in Australia. This epic journey is full of uncertainty, loss, and pain, but also the beauty of familial bonds and ultimate sacrifice.