A review by ari__s
Travelers by Helon Habila

4.0

With immigration so centralized in our current discourse in the country, this book is an important reminder that human migration is not something that just happens in the States. The intricacies of the character overlapping, all in some way centralized on the main narrator mirror the complexity of the refugee and immigrant experience. There seems to be a realness to each chapter and character that isn’t neatly packaged away with each conclusion. In fact, the book closes each chapter and itself with resonance of continuation, that the travels don’t end. It’s that lack of finality that encourages readers to be persistent in thinking on the experience of migration and of displacement, and the loss and hopefulness tied up within it. The tone of this book is quite frank as it unflinchingly leans into the complexity of the immigrant, refugee, and asylum seeker experience. Habila’s writing forbids you to minimize his characters, as briefly as you meet them, into simple boxes, and insists that you pull back the shrouds of single narratives we hold to appreciate the multitudinous experiences of his characters.