For some years now, refugee literature has even been a course offering in various university English and humanities departments, a sure sign that a literature has not only arrived, but may already be on its way to ossification.

I was tempted to add between fantasy (dreams from the past) and science fiction (dreams of the future), but there’s really nothing to be gained by reading the novel in any sort of genre terms, unless you view the refugee survival tale as a genre unto itself, with roots as old as classical antiquity and as current as Britain’s “Refugee Tales” project. No soldiers or Taliban.” The contrast between these kinds of stories is the contrast between memory and hope, between old heroic models of behavior and dreams of a more manageable future. Almost equally fanciful, although Abay doesn’t know it yet, are her visions of a stress-free life in Australia, “a safe country…no bombs.

As they make their way through Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Indonesia toward what they view as the promised land of Australia, Firuzeh’s mother Abay tries to keep her and her brother Nour entertained with stories of classic Persian heroes like Rostam and his powerful horse Rakhsh. We first meet Firuzeh, the central point-of-view character, as a ten-year-old trying to escape with her family from a war-ravaged Afghanistan in which her earliest memories – rendered in a kind of impressionistic child-cenetered prose-poetry that oddly reminded me of the opening of Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – are punctuated by the sounds of fiery explosions. Lily Yu’s luminous first novel On Fragile Waves has a lot to say about both the power of story and the limits of what stories can do. Lily Yu ( Erewhon 978-1-64566-009-5, $25.95, 288pp, hc) February 2021.Īlthough it only marginally features any fantastic elements (mainly a rather ingratiating spirit), E. If you are having trouble finding the link to add a new thread, try this. Please avoid all-caps, especially in thread topics, as it is considered SHOUTING. They are able to edit and improve the Goodreads catalog, and have made it one of the better catalogs online.Īctivities include combining editions, fixing book and author typos, adding book covers and discussing policies. Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who have applied for and received librarian status on Goodreads. Non-librarians are welcome to join the group as well, to comment or request changes to book records.įor general comments on Goodreads and for requests for changes to site functionality, try Goodreads Help or use the Contact Us link instead.įor tips on being a librarian, check out the Non-librarians are welcome to join the group as well, to A place where all Goodreads members can work together to improve the Goodreads book catalog. A place where all Goodreads members can work together to improve the Goodreads book catalog.

E lily yu on fragile waves