This is a very book about illegal immigrants coming to Australia - putting their trust in the wrong hands, risking their lives to run away from horrors, being welcomed like criminals in detention centres where they are stripped from their last shred of dignity and then expected to integrate.
It is a heart wrenching, sad, very humane tale. It deserves to be told. I can't believe people think they are allowed to bar people from safety just because they have the privilege of having being born into the right country. The system is deeply flawed, the suffering is ignominious. People don't leave their home and everything behind if they have a choice. In fact people often endure a lot to stay in the familiar no matter how tough.
The book is necessary for Australia's growth, an eye opener for many I would guess, but I am a little taken aback by the format. While the writing is very lyrical, almost poetic, I find that it takes away from its approachability. This is not an easy book to read, it has a specific pace forced on the reader by the very way it is written and instead of taking you into the lives of the family it portrays, the "tale" presentation, a bit like an epic poem, kept me alienated the whole time. I think this is the type of important and emotive subject where readers should be put in the boots of the characters, and not kept at bay.
I seem to be in the minority, not having liked the book. I guess I enjoy things that are more direct and the beauty of the use of language here kept me from really experiencing the book. I am one of those readers that likes to be immersed, thought I suppose in this case it wouldn't be too nice of an experience. I felt instead the book was too intellectualised and more of a stylistic experiment. But I do believe lots of people who love language, poetry and experimental writing will love it.

beautifully written and exceptionally haunting

the prose in this book was so wonderful. there were so many good quotes that sit heavy on your heart. this book leans very heavily on magical realism, so if that's your genre, then you will probably love this book!

4 Stunning, lyrical, heart aching stars

On Fragile Waves was stunning, heart breaking, and difficult. It is an important experience to immortalize on paper, and I loved that I was able to read it. As a story of a family who of dreamers and story tellers, the lyrical prose really fit the bill for this. It gave off a light magic touch, on brand with the magical realism in the story. It was really cool to see the prose match that story telling so well!

Also, I'm not sure if this was just me, but it felt like the prose felt a little more grounded toward the end when everything was resolving, and they didn't need to rely on stories to surive anymore. I could be imagining that, but I really liked that!! 💝

That being said, I think because of the way the prose is written, this story lost my interest somewhere in between 50-65%, but luckily won back my attention the next time there was a time jump. 😅

"Anyone can suffer. But joy -- that's hard. Ask about joy."

Even though the middle got a little slow there, the ending completely broke my heart. The solution that Atay sees in the end is just... so hard. So devastating. Way too real of a solution. My heart ached the entire time reading this book, but the end was causing me real pain. Amazing work, E. Lily Yu!

Big Takeaway
On Fragile Waves has stunning prose that matches the dreamers and storytellers of this incredibly undertold experience of a family. Though it dragged a bit in the middle, it ties off with a beautiful solution filled with tragic love that broke my heart. 💔

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the free advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I found this book to be well written, almost poetic. One of my first few reads of 2021, and what a beautiful way to start off the year. In a time when hope is seemingly hard to find, this book reminds us of strength in dire situations. I hope that this book does well upon publishing and I will be purchasing a hard copy as soon as it’s out.

On Fragile Waves is a stunning and thoughtful book that crosses oceans with its lyrical prose. It's a story of immigration, of pain, of love, of growing up, and of the stories we tell to others and to ourselves, set between Afghanistan and Australia. Yu's writing is stunning and her story is heart-wrenching and beautiful, weaving the tale of a family escaping war only to find new pain in the country they wish to call home. All the characters of this book are haunting and complex, and Firuzeh was an amazing main character to follow. I loved this book so much and it's definitely a story that will stay with me for a long time. I highly recommend.

This book tells the story of an Afghani family and their trip to safety in Australia. It especially focuses on the experience of the children of the family throughout the travel itself, and not so much on the experience in the place they come from or the place the eventually go to. It is told in a short snappy style, with chapter that are just a few pages and makes it easy to read without compromising on beauty.
The book does portray the struggle of immigration, focusing especially on the travel itself. Although this is a interesting angle, I felt like the choice limited the depth to which this book could go on the discussion of how these people are uprooted and need to adapt to the new cultures. The choice to focus on the children does give the opportunity of exploring the intergenerational difference, but it further limits how much the conflict between cultures of different countries can be discussed, since the children are not so aware of those.
Overall I enjoyed it, but I wish it could have gone in more depth. This is an emotional book more than a thought-provoking book.

The prose of this novel is just not for me. I really dislike books without quotation marks or that this fragmented kind of writing style. I hope others will find this to be to their liking but I can't say that I am a fan.

Firuzeh is a young girl when her family decides to make the danger ous trip from their native Afghanistan to hopfully make a new, safer life in Australia. They endure many trials to make it there, including watching a girl Firuzeh's age, Nashima, drown on the boat trip to the refugee camp. While they do make it, their life is still full of strife, with money tight and persistent xenophobia, but all the while Firuzeh keeps seeing Nashima, the drowned girl, follow her and talk her through her difficult young life.
The first thing I want to say about this book is that it is being shelved as fantasy incorrectly both on Goodreads and on NetGalley: this is a literary fiction novel with a hint of magical realism in the form of Nashima occasionally having conversations with Firuzeh. There is nothing else fantastical about the story. However, I don't think anyone going in with wrong expectations will be disappointed by the way Nashima is incorporated in the story; in fact, it was my favorite part. Using Nashima as a coping mechanism for Firuzeh's trauma and fear was brilliant and well-done. It also fit in well with the storytelling motif of the book, where first her mother and then later she tells stories inspired by folklore to bring hope to their situation. I thought that the prose was written in such a way to be lyrical but not overly flowery, which I believe will be a middle ground that most people will love.
As much as this book was written beautifully and told an important story, I could not possibly give it five stars for one reason specifically. I'm unsure if my copy was final so this may not be the case when the book releases, but every chapter from Firuzeh's point of view is lacking quotation marks even though there is dialogue. This seems to be done intentionally and stylistically, since when there is an occasional chapter from a side character, there are quotation marks. I also felt that the book could have been longer; more time with these characters would have greatly strengthened the reader's existing connection with them.

4.25 stars - On Fragile Waves by E. Lily Yu

TL,DR: A poetic, haunting book recommended for those who want something beautiful and sad with a touch of the fantastical.

On Fragile Waves is a lovely, heartbreaking book about a family of refugees and the people they meet along the way. Although we enter many POVs, Firuzeh, a precocious girl of about 12, is our anchor. We follow her, her younger brother, and her parents across countries and continents as they flee war-torn Afghanistan in search of a better life. It's written in a dreamlike style, with no dialogue tags and an often wibbly-wobbly sense of who's speaking--which befits a family that uses stories to express itself and survive.

I spent a long time debating how to score this book. For its language and the emotions it evokes, it's certainly a 5; Yu has a gorgeous style that's easy to follow in spite of its dreamlike/ambiguous qualities. She's also a master of haunting turns of phrase and raw yet understated emotion; the ending left me sobbing. It's a truly beautiful book. I read it in two sittings, unable to tear myself away, and I'll hold the characters in my heart for a long time.

There are two "buts" for me, though. The first: my own expectations. While I loved the ghost accompanying Firuzeh, I expected a deeper fantastical element since the book is descibed as magical realism. The ghost felt more like grace notes illustrating a grief-stricken imagination than something deeply intrinsic to the story. I think I wouldn't have felt a bit disappointed about this if my expectations had been different.

The second is something that the book mentions: who the author is vs. whose story it is. There's an American character in the novel who comes to Australia to learn and write about the refugees; she is later told that she asked the wrong questions, that she should have focused on joy and not pain. I read this as a self-insertion by the author; while there is joy and victory and love in the story, it is fundamentally a tale about grief and loss. None of the three refugee families that first come to my mind have a happy ending, without huge loss or tragedy--they all suffer, and continue to suffer even when they should be safe. The story holds the sense of an outsider teaching other outsiders about the pain of being a refugee. None of that makes the book any less beautiful or any less real, but it does make me wonder if the author could have told a similar story through a different frame more effectively. I don't think I have the answer to that question. I also don't think it makes it any less worth reading

In all, I recommend this book, especially for those who want something beautiful and sad with a touch of the fantastical. Yu is an incredibly talented writer and I'll certainly be seeking out more of her stories in the future.

Beautiful and heartbreaking, and told through the fractured and protective prose of a young girl who has the hurt of multiple lives bound up within her, On Fragile Waves follows Firuzeh and her family as they leave a country at war to seek the peace and stability they eagerly anticipate on the shores of Australia.

At six years old, Firuzeh, her four-year-old brother Nour, and her parents, are fleeing Afghanistan in the midst of a war for the safety and security of a future in Australia. With the situation too harrowing to wait around for a visa, they have paid someone to smuggle them out of the country, although they quickly realize that they aren't too sure how successful this plan will be. They first have to get into Pakistan and then take a plane to Jakarta and a boat to Australia. Firuzeh meets a precocious young friend, Nasima, who is traveling with her parents to reunify with her two older brothers, already living in Perth. Nasima has many grand stories of what lies ahead, and speaks with the authority and certainty of someone many years her senior. She and Firuzeh overcome difference to become fast friends, bonded through this common experience, and promise never to leave each other.

The boat ride to Australia is particularly grueling, with many people packed together and weighing down a small craft on rough seas. As the waves rise and parents hold their children close, the inevitable current sweeps away the promises of a young family. Firuzeh, a seemingly slightly unreliable narrator at times, is excited to be rescued by the Australian Navy, only to find herself and her companions brought to a detainment camp at Nauru to await a decision on their TPV status. As harrowing as the journey has been, the detainment camp brings new threats, all with the uncertainty of ever being able to enter Australia and realize the dream they have come so far to chase.

After what seems to Firuzeh to be centuries of fright and loss, they do finally receive TPV approval and make a tenuous settlement on the mainland. Her father, who once owned his own garage in Kabul, has to take a job as a mechanic's assistant, as his immigration status and limited English skills make work nearly impossible to come by. Firuzeh struggles to make friends in school, with even the girls she does spend time with calling her "queue jumper" in jest. Nour wants nothing more than to play soccer, but at seven dollars a week and a twenty dollar jersey, a spot on the team is persistently just out of reach. As the whole family struggles with the trauma of what they have been through the last few years, the hope that buoyed them for so long slowly dissipates until so little is left that their lives feel empty and unrecognizable. Throughout these challenges, Nasima has always stood by Firuzeh, always showing up at just the right moment with a seemingly impossible insight, brought to her by a dream or a jinn, but by the end, even Nasima has gone as well.

This novel is wonderfully well-constructed in concept, as Firuzeh's narrative style tends toward the stunted and abrupt factuality of a traumatized and numb child, interspersed with an almost poetic and dark fairy tale on a quest to find its ending--or even its middle. My only gripe about this book is that the magical elements and the shifts in narrative style are too few and far between to make this story feel cohesive in the way it could. And yet, I still find myself rating this book five stars the depiction of Firuzeh's character and her development as she navigates the messiness of the world is just that well done. It's an aspect that may not appeal to all readers, but I loved it for its authenticity.

My immense gratitude to NetGalley and Erewhon Books for the eARC in exchange for the review.

Marking this as "finished," but really, it's an unfinished book for me. I think I made it maybe 10% in, and I'm honestly wondering if I read the same book as these 5-star reviews. The writing was clunky and disconnected, and I never actually understood exactly what I was reading. Definitely not a book for me.

A heart-breaking, magically haunting, brutally honest tale of immigration. The story follows Firuzeh and her brother Nour, children in war torn Afghanistan, with parents who dream of a better life for their children in Australia. Without the option of legal immigration, the family pays for passage and documents out and survives a harrowing journey by boat towards Australia. Firuzeh meets Nasima on the boat journey, and as they settle into a guarded friendship, tragedy strikes the sea journey and the boat finally lands at Nauru. Through the trials of living in fenced, government compounds, the family uses stories and fairy tales from their homeland to try and cope with horrible living conditions, abusive captors and the struggle to try and adapt to a culture they cannot hope to understand. This is a difficult story and subject that lays out the struggles, hopelessness, fear, acceptance, and joy that buoy this family as they try to make a new life for themselves. I am so glad I was able to read this story, as it brings a journey so many of us are unfamiliar with to light and brings a level of understanding to what immigrants face as they search for a better life for their children. The lyrical way it is written, and the events Firuzeh is faced with and how she copes, and ultimately moves forward will stay with you long past finishing this novel. The fantasy elements only occasionally peak through but this is such an important story to read, to put yourself into a world and footsteps of a young girl and her family just seeking peace and stability.

Tenía muchísimas ganas de leer la primera novela de E. Lily Yu, pero no esperaba que su prosa preciosista fuera capaz de destrozarme tan completamente, con una historia terriblemente dura y realista.


A través de las páginas de la novela seguiremos las desventura de una familia afgana que huye de su país y busca refugio en Australia, pasando antes por diversas etapas a cada paso más complicadas y exigentes. El tono fantástico en este caso es muy leve, similar al que usó por ejemplo Jesmyn Ward en su Sing, Unburied, Sing, con la presencia de un fantasma que acompañará a la hija de la familia.

Me gusta mucho el recurso de utilizar la narración de cuentos fantásticos para intentar asimilar la terrible realidad a la que se enfrentan los protagonistas y es también un refuerzo más del mensaje el hecho de que cada vez estos relatos se van volviendo más oscuros y maduros.

El formato de la novela en ocasiones no ayuda a la legibilidad del texto, ya que no se separan de la manera habitual los diálogos, quizá para enfatizar la corta edad de la narradora, pero en ocasiones ralentiza la lectura.

También puede resultar interesante para el lector cómo va madurando la narradora, obligada a perder su infancia en escasos momentos y cómo va cambiando su relación con el resto de los personajes.

On Fragile Waves es una historia de racismo, de indiferencia ante el sufrimiento ajeno y de una profunda injusticia. Nos sirve para quitarnos esa venda privilegiada que normalmente llevamos sobre los ojos que convenientemente nos impide ver los problemas a nuestro alrededor.

I'm sorry. On Fragile Waves appeared to be a novel that I would enjoy. The premise of the story was intriguing. Unfortunately, however, it was a disaster for me. I could not engage with the author's writing style and I ended up in an endless battle with losing my concentration. I gave up trying to finish the novel at the 20% mark (though I generally try to get to 33%.) I did, however, sneak a peak at the last few chapters to see if the ending would change my outlook on the novel. It did not. Based on what I read, I would rate it one star. I didn't like it, which is too bad.

I received a digital ARC from Erewhon Books through NetGalley. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts an opinions.

Because my review is based on a partial read of the novel, I will not be posting any review on my blog, Goodreads, and other social media sites.

A family flees a war-torn Afghanistan to the magical land of opportunity - Australia only to find their dreams and promised land might not be all they thought. Their horrific boat journey takes its toll on them and the others they travel with and when they finally reach Australia they are put in a refugee camp. Conditions are awful and while they try to find work the odds of being allowed to stay are stacked against them. Firuzeh and her brother Nour do their best to help teach their parents English and help them however they can but it is a daily battle. The kids keep their sanity by inventing elaborate fairy tales like the ones their parents told them but it is not enough. Sadly, most Australians do not want them to stay and even the little help they do receive is often misguided. The choppy sentence structure takes a bit of time to get used to but it does serve to make Firuzeh's voice feel more authentic. Any reader of international immigration issues will find this both heartbreaking and a call to action. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

First of all, I want to say I am so thankful for getting the opportunity to read this ARC. It was a lovely experience.

Firuzeh and her youber brother have to leave Afghanistan with their parants, due to the ongoing war. Their goal is to seek safety in Australia, but they have a long jouney ahead. Losing friends just as fast as they had found them.

When I started reading this book I thought that the writing style was a bit odd. Not exactly mu thing, but I have to say I got used to it pretty quickly.

It is a very fast moving story, and a quick read, but it is such a heavy topic. Even though it is a heavy topic it is written in a way that doesn't make it heavy to read. You just want to keep reading to know what is going to happen to them. It is told in a lighthearted way, with still the same impact. It shoes the struggle immigrants have to go to. I did shed some tears.

Firuzeh grows so much as a character in just these few pages. At first she is this little girl who does not understand her parents and their choices. But in the end she is so much more mature.

Overall, a lovely read, and would definitely recommend this story.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

This debut is only gently fabulist, but what it lacks in magical fireworks, it makes up for in human relationships. It's the story of a young Afghani girl whose family travels as refugees to Australia. She continues to have a relationship with a friend she meets along the way that is the most speculative element of the book, and also one of the warmest elements.

Because life in Australia is not the welcoming paradise of their dreams. Firuzeh, her parents, and her brother Nour have profoundly different struggles from each other, making it hard for each family member to understand the others' behavior. Their stories diverge, but Firuzeh's relationship with story is a major part of what gets her through some of her worst struggles and brings her family back together.

For me the chapter where "the writer" appears from America, doing research into her book, is the least effective part of this story. If Yu hadn't chosen to apply the language of a calling to writing about this specifically, I would not have questioned it in those terms, but bringing it up felt like trying to stave off criticism rather than enhancing Firuzeh's story--and some of the most pertinent questions remained unasked. (For example, "why was your 'calling' to criticize another wealthy nation's handling of the immigrant crisis in ways that were impeccably researched to be specifically Australian rather than turning your thoughts to a similar system in which you personally might be implicated?" Not, apparently, on the list of earnest self-searching questions; ah well.)

But when Yu gets out of her own way, Firuzeh's relationships and struggles are compelling, and this is a book well worth reading.

This book will break your heart with beautiful prose for terrible grief.

Using a foundation of folktales, a young girl named Firuzeh tells stories to herself as a form of self defense, a barrier, and a lens to view the nightmare of her life as a refugee. The phantom of her drowned friend haunts the stories she tells herself—even as she tries to stretch the comfortingly traditional tales she grew up with into fitting as an overlay to the life she is living now—and they are tinged with a deep sense of grief and confusion and loss

I am glad I read this book, but I think my heart wouldn’t withstand a second go at it.

I ask myself why I hesitate at five stars, and I answer with quibbles. Firuzeh was too witty for her age? But then she's great company to guide us through the book. An American writes about Manus Island and Nauru, Australia's detainment camps for refugees? But the novel goes meta about that, when an earnest American comes along to interview ex-detainees in Melbourne and asks the wrong questions. Somewhat more importantly, a descent into ugly, plain writing when the novel's one portrait of sheer evil walks in? How do you imaginatively grasp a concentration camp guard and not drop to blunt-instrument prose? Who knows? At one stage I thought the plot was going to not subject its children to the worst happenings in Australia's offshore detention, such as self-immolations, but they do witness self-harm.

I loved how it's written. Subtly lyrical -- not overblown -- and disjointed enough to be through the confused eyes of a child -- not enough to make the reader scrabble in its wake.

I've seen this novel described as magical realism even I think in the publisher's materials. I don't get that. Firuzeh has an imaginary friend, is most of it. The rest is suggestion, a mild element that might fall under childhood perception.

I loved Firuzeh and her dead friend from the boat, and believed in her mother and father, and wished she paid more attention to her younger brother, exactly as she gets told (what hint is that as to what she hasn't noticed, in the end?) It isn't direly negative: its end grabbed me by the throat with hope and beauty and that word that occurs in the text, joy. Hopepunk not grimdark, yeah.

I really am a fan of books that cover heavy concepts but do so in the most beautifully written way. I enjoyed the magical realism that was imbued in the horrors that the Firuzeh and her family (as well as the others that they meet along the way) go through. It doesn't lighten the tragedies or disrespect them in any way. So much of the story resonated with me. Heartbreaking, powerful, and beautiful.