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A review by livtheninth
On Fragile Waves by E. Lily Yu
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.