What Strange Paradise

In What Strange Paradise, Omar El Akkad explores the global refugee crisis through the eyes of a nine-year-old Syrian boy named Amir. The novel follows Amir and a teenage girl named Vänna as they journey towards safety, but it also delves into the themes of empathy, indifference, hope, and despair. The book is a powerful portrayal of our collective moment in this time and is considered an instant classic by many readers.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 18 August 2022
Publisher: Pan Macmillan

‘Deserves to be an instant classic. I haven’t loved a book this much in a long time . . . What Strange Paradise . . . reads as a parable for our times . . . Such beautiful writing . . . This is an extraordinary book.’ – The New York Times

From the widely acclaimed author of American War, Omar El Akkad, a beautifully written, unrelentingly dramatic and profoundly moving novel that brings the global refugee crisis down to the level of a child’s eyes.

More bodies have washed up on the shores of a small island. Another over-filled, ill-equipped, dilapidated ship has sunk under the weight of its too-many passengers: Syrians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Lebanese, Palestinians, all of them desperate to escape untenable lives in their homelands. And only one had made the passage: nine-year-old Amir, a Syrian boy who has the good fortune to fall into the hands not of the officials, but of Vänna: a teenage girl, native to the island, who lives inside her own sense of homelessness in a place and among people she has come to disdain. And though Vänna and Amir are complete strangers and don’t speak a common language, Vänna determines to do whatever it takes to save him.

In alternating chapters, we learn the story of Amir’s life and of how he came to be on the ship; and we follow the duo as they make their way towards a vision of safety. But as the novel unfurls, we begin to understand that this is not merely the story of two children finding their way through a hostile world. Omar El Akkad’s What Strange Paradise is the story of our collective moment in this time: of empathy and indifference, of hope and despair – and of the way each of those things can blind us to reality, or guide us to a better one.

Weight: 186g
Dimension: 130 x 197 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781529069495