![]() ![]() “On their sixth day at sea, the typhoon came. The reader, like the listening children, becomes captive to the majesty of well-fashioned prose: Thus, with Yu’s careful handling of language, a fatal monsoon becomes a terrible - and, paradoxically beautiful - conquest of fear. Light touches are introduced as the parents weave indigenous myths and mystical tales of heroism into the family’s plight to inspire their children and soften their fright. The horrific events portrayed are made endurable by the author’s skillful use of characterization and poetic imagery. ![]() ![]() The family travels endless days filled with dread and numbing cultural indifference from others. The fictional journey juxtaposes the opposing poles of human emotion: doubt and faith, fear and comfort, hope and despair. There, they become quarantined in a refugee tent camp, left to wait with faint hope that they might be granted permission to settle in nearby Australia. Lily Yu begins her poetic debut novel, On Fragile Waves, tracking a family’s migration from Afghanistan to Pakistan to Indonesia to Nauru, a small island country northeast of Australia. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |