The Boat People
Books | Fiction / Family Life / General
3.8
(59)
Sharon Bala
Globe and Mail bestseller, The Boat People is an extraordinary novel about a group of refugees who survive a perilous ocean voyage only to face the threat of deportation amid accusations of terrorism When a rusty cargo ship carrying Mahindan and five hundred fellow refugees from Sri Lanka's bloody civil war reaches Vancouver's shores, the young father thinks he and his six-year-old son can finally start a new life. Instead, the group is thrown into a detention processing center, with government officials and news headlines speculating that among the "boat people" are members of a separatist militant organization responsible for countless suicide attacks—and that these terrorists now pose a threat to Canada's national security. As the refugees become subject to heavy interrogation, Mahindan begins to fear that a desperate act taken in Sri Lanka to fund their escape may now jeopardize his and his son's chance for asylum. Told through the alternating perspectives of Mahindan; his lawyer, Priya, a second-generation Sri Lankan Canadian who reluctantly represents the refugees; and Grace, a third-generation Japanese Canadian adjudicator who must decide Mahindan's fate as evidence mounts against him, The Boat People is a spellbinding and timely novel that provokes a deeply compassionate lens through which to view the current refugee crisis.
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More Details:
Author
Sharon Bala
Pages
352
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published Date
2018-01-09
ISBN
0385542305 9780385542302
Ratings
Google: 5
Community ReviewsSee all
"TheBoatPeople by @sharon.bala was our first #BookClub selection of the 2022/23 year. I listened to most of it on #EAudioBook as my brain was not up to it while sick and I wanted to hear the names and words pronounced correctly.
A wonderful narrative that accurately depots the world in shades of grey. The three perspectives of Mahindan, Priya, and Grace allow you insight into different aspects of the refugee process.
I loved the dynamic of Priya's family. While I did not like Grace I can understand how haggard she is from family life and how trying the whole process would be for someone new to her position.
I wish we had gotten a little more at the ending but enjoyed how the reader was able to decide what happens next."
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