Clare L. Deming

I’ve been reading some long books lately. That means that I haven’t finished anything new to review this week, so I’m going to my dwindling backlog for this post.

I read On Fragile Waves by E. Lily Yu last year for one of my book clubs (paid link). It was described as magical realism, which is a sub-genre that I’m not terribly familiar with. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Jeed Saddy.

Here is the blurb:

Firuzeh and her brother Nour are children of fire, born in an Afghanistan fractured by war. When their parents, their Atay and Abay, decide to leave, they spin fairy tales of their destination, the mythical land and opportunities of Australia.

As the family journeys from Pakistan to Indonesia to Nauru, heading toward a hope of home, they must rely on fragile and temporary shelters, strangers both mercenary and kind, and friends who vanish as quickly as they’re found.

When they arrive in Australia, what seemed like a stable shore gives way to treacherous currents. Neighbors, classmates, and the government seek their own ends, indifferent to the family’s fate. For Firuzeh, her fantasy worlds provide some relief, but as her family and home splinter, she must surface from these imaginings and find a new way.

The concept of this book sounded interesting enough, and I’m always open to reading diverse perspectives. However, the story told in this book never truly captured my interest and contained very little in the way of fantastical elements. The magical realism aspect comes in when Firuzeh’s friend dies on the journey, but continues to visit Firuzeh and speak to her. I was disappointed overall, and while I finished the book, I don’t even remember how it ended now.

The writing in the book was good and I’d consider reading a different book by the same author. The narrator was easy to listen to and I think that I might not have been able to finish a print or e-book version of this novel. Sometimes I do better finishing an audiobook when I’m struggling to stay engaged with the story.

Have you read any books with a similar setting or theme? Which ones would you recommend? Let me know in the comments (above).

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