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snp46's review against another edition
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
rwilkinson's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
sde's review against another edition
5.0
The author's writing is lovely. It is relatively sparse but very much evokes sounds, smells, and feelings.
The book was part of my library's adult summer reading challenge, and I am so happy it was because I might have never discovered it otherwise. It was on a list for the week called "Other Worlds," which was supposed to be sci-fi and fantasy books. This book was neither, although I see that the author has won awards in those genres. It is a realistic fiction story with a little bit of communication with ghosts, the dead, and spirits, told in a way that many people experience in real life.
The author is American, and the story is about a family of refugees from Afghanistan who eventually make their way to Australia, so obviously she isn't intimately familiar with any of these settings, and I have no idea if she has gotten a lot wrong or right, but it doesn't really matter to me. Many of the feelings evoked would be similar to those of people in related situations.
The book was part of my library's adult summer reading challenge, and I am so happy it was because I might have never discovered it otherwise. It was on a list for the week called "Other Worlds," which was supposed to be sci-fi and fantasy books. This book was neither, although I see that the author has won awards in those genres. It is a realistic fiction story with a little bit of communication with ghosts, the dead, and spirits, told in a way that many people experience in real life.
The author is American, and the story is about a family of refugees from Afghanistan who eventually make their way to Australia, so obviously she isn't intimately familiar with any of these settings, and I have no idea if she has gotten a lot wrong or right, but it doesn't really matter to me. Many of the feelings evoked would be similar to those of people in related situations.
livtheninth's review against another edition
4.0
On Fragile Waves took me right back to 2015, to what has been referred to as "the migrant crisis". The daily news stories of strife and death upon the sea. The iconography of human suffering ever present in the media - the images that have forever burned into our retinas of dead children and grieving parents. The boats, always too small, too many people crammed into them, huddled together.
And, of course, the camps.
This is a story that takes us on a journey from Afghanistan to Australia via the infamous detainment camp of Nauru. There are many news articles detailing how Nauru broke people in every way possible - broke their bodies, crushed their souls, smothered their hopes and dreams. I will quote Betelhem Tibebu, in a Vice article titled Life After 4 Years of Detention Hell on Nauru:
“It’s like heaven and hell. I don’t have any words to explain it. It was a beautiful place, but Nauru is a horrible place. For me, it’s a place where we lost our dreams, our health, our time and our identity. And we lost a lot of friends. I don’t think we were alive in that place, I don’t say we lived. I prefer to say we were dead.”
I have found it hard to write anything about this book. I think it is because of how deeply its story saddened me. Not that I did not already know about the horrible conditions that so many migrants live through in camps - I was well aware. But a story experienced chiefly through the eyes of a child, who doesn’t fully comprehend what is happening and why, becomes so much more impactful.
The choice to tell its story with a strong focus on the experiences of a child is one of this novel’s greatest strengths, in my eyes, but it does make for a more difficult read, emotionally. A child might, for example, not know the meaning of the phrase “survivor’s guilt”, but they may experience it nonetheless. They may suffer through extensive trauma and then, being utterly unprepared for it, have that trauma emerge in unpredictable ways. If the entire family is traumatized, and the adults are laid low by their burdens, to whom can the children turn for support? Will society be there to catch them when they fall?
This novel ultimately succeeds in turning an unflinching eye on the painful reality that being granted asylum or a temporary residence visa is not necessarily the end of a migrant’s troubles. A temporary visa can, after all, be revoked, the threat of being forced back home to a warzone ever present for those lucky enough to get out of the detainment camps. Furthermore, integration can of course be an issue - the learning curve for a new language can be steep, and cultural differences can make it hard to feel at home in a new country - especially for people suffering from trauma. It is not easy finding normality in a new life after - as the quote from Betelhem Tibebu describes - having lost so much of oneself… building a future with broken bricks, on a shattered foundation.
This story of one family’s fate, similar to so many others, is a powerful and painful call to arms against the inhumane treatment of refugees. Its poetic, beautiful language envelops the story in a dreamlike shroud and, in its beauty, defies the horrific subject matter. You will not feel good reading this book, but just as you should not turn away from the news just because they are upsetting, you should not ignore this important and impactful story for fear that it may be painful.
And, of course, the camps.
This is a story that takes us on a journey from Afghanistan to Australia via the infamous detainment camp of Nauru. There are many news articles detailing how Nauru broke people in every way possible - broke their bodies, crushed their souls, smothered their hopes and dreams. I will quote Betelhem Tibebu, in a Vice article titled Life After 4 Years of Detention Hell on Nauru:
“It’s like heaven and hell. I don’t have any words to explain it. It was a beautiful place, but Nauru is a horrible place. For me, it’s a place where we lost our dreams, our health, our time and our identity. And we lost a lot of friends. I don’t think we were alive in that place, I don’t say we lived. I prefer to say we were dead.”
I have found it hard to write anything about this book. I think it is because of how deeply its story saddened me. Not that I did not already know about the horrible conditions that so many migrants live through in camps - I was well aware. But a story experienced chiefly through the eyes of a child, who doesn’t fully comprehend what is happening and why, becomes so much more impactful.
The choice to tell its story with a strong focus on the experiences of a child is one of this novel’s greatest strengths, in my eyes, but it does make for a more difficult read, emotionally. A child might, for example, not know the meaning of the phrase “survivor’s guilt”, but they may experience it nonetheless. They may suffer through extensive trauma and then, being utterly unprepared for it, have that trauma emerge in unpredictable ways. If the entire family is traumatized, and the adults are laid low by their burdens, to whom can the children turn for support? Will society be there to catch them when they fall?
This novel ultimately succeeds in turning an unflinching eye on the painful reality that being granted asylum or a temporary residence visa is not necessarily the end of a migrant’s troubles. A temporary visa can, after all, be revoked, the threat of being forced back home to a warzone ever present for those lucky enough to get out of the detainment camps. Furthermore, integration can of course be an issue - the learning curve for a new language can be steep, and cultural differences can make it hard to feel at home in a new country - especially for people suffering from trauma. It is not easy finding normality in a new life after - as the quote from Betelhem Tibebu describes - having lost so much of oneself… building a future with broken bricks, on a shattered foundation.
This story of one family’s fate, similar to so many others, is a powerful and painful call to arms against the inhumane treatment of refugees. Its poetic, beautiful language envelops the story in a dreamlike shroud and, in its beauty, defies the horrific subject matter. You will not feel good reading this book, but just as you should not turn away from the news just because they are upsetting, you should not ignore this important and impactful story for fear that it may be painful.
margaretefg's review against another edition
4.0
Read this right after What Strange Paradise, while people were streaming out of Ukraine. This book was heart-rending. Firuzeh and her family flee Kabul for Australia, and despite cheating, lying smugglers, near shipwreck, a purgatory of wait on Nauru and countless family squabbles, they eventually arrive safely and settle in Australia. But, of course, that's not the end of their struggles as refugees. And Firuzeh has to figure out how to grow and who she is in all these different settings.
slouchingtowards's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
kbratten's review against another edition
5.0
I don't love some of the stylistic choices of the book, but I was moved deeply and regularly by the story of this family. They felt real, their relationships felt real, their experiences felt real. Very powerful storytelling.
taryn_araksi's review against another edition
4.0
what a book. if you haven't read it, you should give it a whirl.
"All God wants is for us to submit. Haven't I submitted? Hasn't my whole life been one punch in the mouth after another? At what point am I allowed to fight?"
On Fragile Waves is the story of a family's journey from an Afghanistan fractured by war to what is supposed to be their saving grace - Australia. The story is narrated, in majority, by a child. Normally, I am not a fan of this -- it always comes off as either inauthentic or hard for me to relate to, but I think it really worked for this book. I honestly saw this more as a heartbreaking coming of age than than anything else.
"Don't let them break you or turn you hard. This world is a harsh place and not made for you."
We follow Firuzeh and her family as she is forced to see grown up things and deal with grown up issues until she is eventually forced into a pseudo-adulthood.
"The world had bruised and gone soft, and now impossible things teemed and wormed out of it."
I also loved that the author wrote herself into the story, as a journalist, and addressed the question of whether or not she was the right person to tell this story. And when she questions whether or not she was asking the right questions of the refugees and their families. she got some really great advice: "Anyone can suffer. But joy - that's hard. Ask about joy."
Overall, I think it was almost painful how light and airy much of this heavy subject matter felt, which really made it all the more interesting to read. I think using the child's perspective allowed this story feel both incredibly close but far away, sad but hopeful.
"All God wants is for us to submit. Haven't I submitted? Hasn't my whole life been one punch in the mouth after another? At what point am I allowed to fight?"
On Fragile Waves is the story of a family's journey from an Afghanistan fractured by war to what is supposed to be their saving grace - Australia. The story is narrated, in majority, by a child. Normally, I am not a fan of this -- it always comes off as either inauthentic or hard for me to relate to, but I think it really worked for this book. I honestly saw this more as a heartbreaking coming of age than than anything else.
"Don't let them break you or turn you hard. This world is a harsh place and not made for you."
We follow Firuzeh and her family as she is forced to see grown up things and deal with grown up issues until she is eventually forced into a pseudo-adulthood.
"The world had bruised and gone soft, and now impossible things teemed and wormed out of it."
I also loved that the author wrote herself into the story, as a journalist, and addressed the question of whether or not she was the right person to tell this story. And when she questions whether or not she was asking the right questions of the refugees and their families. she got some really great advice: "Anyone can suffer. But joy - that's hard. Ask about joy."
Overall, I think it was almost painful how light and airy much of this heavy subject matter felt, which really made it all the more interesting to read. I think using the child's perspective allowed this story feel both incredibly close but far away, sad but hopeful.
hillaryreadseverything's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0