Reviews

ARRIVAL by NATALIYA DELEVA

… ‘is an exploration of the ripple effects of domestic abuse’. So says the blurb.

It is formed into small chapters that are more like snapshots or images from different periods of the narrator’s life. Sometimes she is a child living in Bulgaria with her abusive alcoholic father, sometimes she is a young woman trying to make it in a new country with different customs and cultures (I particularly enjoyed the exploration of the way different cultures answer the question: how are you?), and sometimes she is a young mother in therapy, trying to make sense of her past and future.

The effect is a fast paced look at a life filled with sadness and a hope for a better future.

Motherhood is also discussed in this novel, and it felt honest in its presentation of love and fear.

I think there are so many of you out there who will love this. And if you’re concerned about the aspect of domestic violence, just know that the writer handles it very well and it it never gratuitous — she is not attempting to make us all weep, rather she is attempting to give us hope that we can heal; we can arrive.

Thanks to @jordtaylorjones for sending me this beautiful @theindigopress proof. Indigo are fast becoming a new favourite publisher.

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