Career journalist Omar El Akkad burst onto the literary scene with 2017’s American War, a work of near-future political dystopia told from the vantage of a second American Civil War. His sophomore follow-up, What Strange Paradise, mines its material from a more immediate international bent, tracing the before and after, in bifurcated structure, of a Mediterannean migrant crossing from the POV of a young middle eastern boy, Amir. In most ways, this second effort is a better fit for the author. His reportage background — so clinically utilized in his first effort — is more affectingly applied to the present-day ethnography here, crafting a twofold tension-filled narrative of a boy’s dangerous sea crossing and his subsequent ally-aided flight toward “freedom.” At the novel’s best, El Akkad uses this charged setup to interrogate Western-exceptionalist notions of globalist philosophy: at one point, a character casually announces, “the two kinds of people in this world aren’t good and bad—they’re engine and fuel.” This intellectual potency doesn’t always abide, as the author’s would-be exploration of a Middle East diaspora regrettably falls prey to more rote character arcs, the good and bad guys all too easily explicated. But if the vision isn’t entirely fleshed out, it still marks a step forward for El Akkad, this latest novel one in which characters are at least realized on a full emotional spectrum, even if they remain largely prescribed archetypes.

Excellent. I read this as a partner-read and the discussions and ideas throughout the reading made this book even more profound and interesting. The storytelling is incredible and moves quickly- which can make a reader read it at a faster pace. I recommend taking your time and reflecting on the before and after with this one. This one deserves the Giller prize and I believe it’s a book that will be read for many years- and my hope and fear- as a high school recommended read. Thanks to NetGalley for the copy.

Omar El Akkad's moving, sobering, page-turning novel is not to be missed. We've all seen the awful photos of small immigrant children and Omar's novel brings the photos to life.

Between his masterfully beautiful writing and his decision to have two children - a nine-year-old Syrian who is the sole survivor of a sunken ship and the local teenage girl who is hellbent on helping him - be the core of this tale of the migrant crisis, Omar El Akkad has crafted a work that carries an enormous punch whose effects will be felt long after one has completed this simultaneously uplifting and tragic read. Make sure that you've braced yourself properly before picking up "What Strange Paradise," because despite its intense highs and lows, because if my own experience is any indicator, once begun this is not an easy book to tear oneself away from.