What Strange Paradise

Another overloaded, decaying ship has sunk off a small island, and more bodies wash up on its shores. The passengers were Syrians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Lebanese and Palestinians, all trying to leave lives they could no longer bear. One person has made it to land: Amir, a nine-year-old Syrian boy.

Amir is found by Vanna, a teenage girl who was born on the island. She feels homeless there and holds the place and its people in contempt. She and Amir share no language and have never met, yet she decides to do whatever it takes to keep him safe, and not to hand him over to the officials.

The novel alternates between two threads. In one, Amir's earlier life unfolds and the reader learns how he came to be on the boat. In the other, Vanna and Amir move together toward a place where he might be safe.

The refugee crisis is seen at the level of a child's eyes, and the tone is dramatic and emotionally heavy. The book widens from the two children to the present moment, setting empathy against indifference and hope against despair, and asking how each can cloud or clarify what people see. It won the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize and was longlisted for the 2023 Dublin Literary Award.