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dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Racism, Xenophobia, Trafficking
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Thought provoking
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Trafficking
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, War
challenging
dark
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Xenophobia
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
Small Boat felt like a critical and vital read, but the distress I felt reading it is not to be downplayed. But the distress is necessary because of the reality of the premise of this book.
At first I was concerned that I would simply be reading the attempts of the narrator to justify and diminish the horrendous circumstances. But the unravelling is truly staggering.
This book will stay with me for a long time, I suspect. Of all the books nominated for the International Booker Prize I hope this wins it. People should have to read it, however uncomfortable it makes them.
I borrowed this ebook using Libby directly onto my Kobo. Support your local library!
At first I was concerned that I would simply be reading the attempts of the narrator to justify and diminish the horrendous circumstances. But the unravelling is truly staggering.
This book will stay with me for a long time, I suspect. Of all the books nominated for the International Booker Prize I hope this wins it. People should have to read it, however uncomfortable it makes them.
I borrowed this ebook using Libby directly onto my Kobo. Support your local library!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Xenophobia
tense
Books can be assessed by how they linger on in our minds. By this metric, Small Boat has been singularly effective in having the female protagonist's voice pop up in my head even 2 weeks and 5 books later. It also made me go hunting after some cavalier comments about English Channel boat migrants that I remember a British parliament candidate made [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/reform-uk-asylum-rwanda-channel-boats-b2533923.html]. In the search for culpability(or a scapegoat), public discourse and dehumanising language used toward these boat migrants play a huge part. Also to be considered are the different deterrent techniques used by various countries eg hostile environment, offshoring to a distant third country, pushbacks, border walls, detention, non-recognition of the Geneva Convention for Refugees etc.
Adopting the same language of drowning, waves and safety in her own life during the interrogation, those facing the front lines of the crisis bear the brunt of compassion fatigue, system stress, burnout and public denouncement. As a naval coastguard officer on dispatch, she has to maintain professionalism and objectivity in the face of a constant barrage of desperate calls for help and rescue. Should she have promised them that they would be saved? There is a suggestion in her blurred stressed memories of that fateful night whether the higher ups in the control room ordered her to delay help for that particular boat to 'teach them a lesson.'
Are there the same search and rescue services for rich billionaires with yachts compared to migrants overloaded in flimsy dinghies? Do they get the same treatment? This is a question that this book raised. My mind casts to that submarine adventure outing for a small ultrawealthy group that ended in disaster off our shores and the vast extensive transnational resources that were mobilized in the subsequent underwater search. Médecins Sans Frontières, on the other hand, has ceased search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea with its rescue boat due to putative governmental policies that made it untenable to continue [https://msf.org.uk/article/msf-forced-end-search-and-rescue-operations-central-mediterranean].
Like Socrates, this short but thought-provoking lashing book pricks us to consider difficult questions. The cause and effect. Many segments are searing, such as the soliloquy that opens with "I did not make them leave...." or that French philosopher's quote 'the majority of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room.' Helen Stevenson's English translation of this French philosophical work by Vincent Delacroix is excellent. A strong timely contender for this year's International Booker.
Adopting the same language of drowning, waves and safety in her own life during the interrogation, those facing the front lines of the crisis bear the brunt of compassion fatigue, system stress, burnout and public denouncement. As a naval coastguard officer on dispatch, she has to maintain professionalism and objectivity in the face of a constant barrage of desperate calls for help and rescue. Should she have promised them that they would be saved? There is a suggestion in her blurred stressed memories of that fateful night whether the higher ups in the control room ordered her to delay help for that particular boat to 'teach them a lesson.'
Are there the same search and rescue services for rich billionaires with yachts compared to migrants overloaded in flimsy dinghies? Do they get the same treatment? This is a question that this book raised. My mind casts to that submarine adventure outing for a small ultrawealthy group that ended in disaster off our shores and the vast extensive transnational resources that were mobilized in the subsequent underwater search. Médecins Sans Frontières, on the other hand, has ceased search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea with its rescue boat due to putative governmental policies that made it untenable to continue [https://msf.org.uk/article/msf-forced-end-search-and-rescue-operations-central-mediterranean].
Like Socrates, this short but thought-provoking lashing book pricks us to consider difficult questions. The cause and effect. Many segments are searing, such as the soliloquy that opens with "I did not make them leave...." or that French philosopher's quote 'the majority of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room.' Helen Stevenson's English translation of this French philosophical work by Vincent Delacroix is excellent. A strong timely contender for this year's International Booker.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Xenophobia
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's all of us. We are all guilty of this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racism, Xenophobia, Abandonment
Moderate: Child death, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Minor: Child death
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
In November 2021 27 migrants lost their lives in the English Channel while attempting to cross from France in an inflatable dinghy. This slim little novella explores that real-life event through a fictional lens in three main sections, two of which are from the point of view of the radio operator of the French rescue centre who received their distress calls, while the middle section is from that of the migrant making the calls.
The author is a philosopher, and I think that shows clearly in this thought-provoking and often confronting read. I was amazed and a little horrified by how often I found myself agreeing with some of the points made by the radio operator in her interview with the police. Yes, she may have been attempting to obfuscate and minimise her own failings, but did that negate the validity of some of the points she was attempting to make? She may have had a large role to play in the proximate cause of the arguably preventable deaths, but the ultimate causes are more wide-ranging and often less comfortable for readers to face.
The structure was very clever - and also a little opaque. Did the first and second sections actually occur, or were they all in the mind of the radio operator? If the latter, then she clearly showed more self-awareness and empathy than the policewoman (another side of the operator herself?) gave her credit for. And this issue of empathy, of presenting in a way that others judge acceptable, really gave me pause, particularly when I consider court cases where an incorrect verdict has resulted, largely due to the evidence of the accused or a key witness being discounted because they did not behave or present in a way that others judged correct given the circumstances, something that is particularly problematic and troublesome when things like autism are factored in.
This was a small but mighty book whose unlikeable narrator poses some uncomfortable questions that readers should continue to ponder (before hopefully taking action) long after the book's covers have been closed.
Many thanks to @netgalley and @hoperoadpublishing for the eARC. Small Boat is set to be published on 23 April.
The author is a philosopher, and I think that shows clearly in this thought-provoking and often confronting read. I was amazed and a little horrified by how often I found myself agreeing with some of the points made by the radio operator in her interview with the police. Yes, she may have been attempting to obfuscate and minimise her own failings, but did that negate the validity of some of the points she was attempting to make? She may have had a large role to play in the proximate cause of the arguably preventable deaths, but the ultimate causes are more wide-ranging and often less comfortable for readers to face.
The structure was very clever - and also a little opaque. Did the first and second sections actually occur, or were they all in the mind of the radio operator? If the latter, then she clearly showed more self-awareness and empathy than the policewoman (another side of the operator herself?) gave her credit for. And this issue of empathy, of presenting in a way that others judge acceptable, really gave me pause, particularly when I consider court cases where an incorrect verdict has resulted, largely due to the evidence of the accused or a key witness being discounted because they did not behave or present in a way that others judged correct given the circumstances, something that is particularly problematic and troublesome when things like autism are factored in.
This was a small but mighty book whose unlikeable narrator poses some uncomfortable questions that readers should continue to ponder (before hopefully taking action) long after the book's covers have been closed.
Many thanks to @netgalley and @hoperoadpublishing for the eARC. Small Boat is set to be published on 23 April.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death