In this way, the author displays the overarching idea that our differences pale in comparison to the unavoidably parallel experience of humanness.Įl Akkad juxtaposes an action-adventure saga with an honest portrayal of the refugee experience by alternating the story between “Before” and “After” narratives. His characters are nuanced, complex, and reject the convenient compartmentalization of good or bad. “But the two kinds of people in this world aren’t good and bad-they’re engines and fuel.” The author’s poetic prose lends itself perfectly to the illustration of this notion. “You invent good people and bad people and you draw a neat line between them,” El Akkad reminds the reader. Both characters search for empathy amidst the complex dynamics of a divided world, and both must contend with what they discover along the way. Throughout the novel, the author challenges his readers to alter their perceptions of the world around them through the adolescent lens of Amir and Vänna. However, they share a bond marked by their pursuit of a place to call home. The former is a native islander while the latter is a Syrian refugee.

Vänna and Amir do not share the same language. As Amir searches for shelter in vain, a 15-year-old girl called Vänna Hermes reaches into the chaos to rescue him. Quickly, soldiers swoop onto the scene in search of migrant survivors. By accidentally boarding an overcrowded ferryboat on the shore of Egypt, he unknowingly obliges and embarks on a journey far greater than himself.įast-forward to an all-too-familiar scene of a shipwreck washed ashore, and Amir finds himself the lone survivor of the catastrophe in an unfamiliar island territory. These enticing illustrations beg him to join in on their adventures.

In his second novel, “What Strange Paradise”, he reinforces this truth by focusing on the global refugee crisis witnessed through the wide eyes of two children.įor a nine-year-old Syrian boy named Amir Utu, the idea of a daring voyage sounds alluringly similar to the tales leaping from the pages of his beloved comic book. In his debut novel, “American War”, Omar El Akkad introduced himself to the literary world as one who refuses to shy away from crucial worldwide issues. Special to the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger International reporter unforgettably captures refugee experience in second novel

Omar el akkad novels