Honestly I'm not sure how I feel about this book. I detest the Australian position on refugees and the practice of imprisonment, dehumanisation of the men, women and children set adrift on the surface of this world.
But it's a hard read, not because of the content, I knew what that was already, but because of the poetry that punctuates events and ideas, it slows the flow and confuses the senses. A large swathe of the book is very Arabic in it's sensibilities, focusing on people, who and why they are that way, and how that leads to the next thing. Same style as Frankenstein in Baghdad, hard to follow if it's not what you're used to.
And the endless switching between reality and surreality, makes it hard to distinguish sometimes and harder to pin down the facts.
But beautiful too, painful and flawed, horrific and transcendent in places.
It's a dichotomy, and hard work, but would I recommend it?
Yes.
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