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SEQUENCE:19009156
CREATED:20220203T205500Z
DESCRIPTION:About the novel:\n\nMore bodies have washed up on the shores of a small 
 island. Another overfilled, ill-equipped, dilapidated ship has sunk under 
 the weight of its too many passengers: Syrians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, 
 Lebanese, Palestinians, all of them desperate to escape untenable lives 
 back in their homelands. But miraculously, someone has survived the 
 passage: nine-year-old Amir, a Syrian boy who is soon rescued by Vänna. 
 Vänna is a teenage girl, who, despite being native to the island, 
 experiences her own sense of homelessness in a place and among people she 
 has come to disdain. And though Vänna and Amir are complete strangers, 
 though they don’t speak a common language, Vänna is determined to do 
 whatever it takes to save the boy.\n\nRegister with Eventbrite to attend 
 this event. 
 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reading-and-discussion-with-omar-el-akkad-author-of-what-strange-paradise-tickets-261500784887\n\n***\n“What 
 Strange Paradise is by turns tender and brutal in its truths. It is 
 tremendously written, propulsive as it is expansive as it is granular in 
 its specificities. Omar El Akkad writes with such emotional precision, 
 power, and grace. Here we get the wondrousness of children set in sharp 
 relief against a backdrop of the all too common dehumanization then 
 dismissal of refugees everywhere. The book devastates and uplifts, somehow, 
 and we are not left with hope—that isn’t the point—but asked to 
 witness, to see what is here, with clarity, and with fullness of 
 heart.”\n—Tommy Orange, author of There There\n\n“What Strange 
 Paradise by Omar El Akkad just resuscitated my heart. This 
 novel—following a boy who survives a refugee passage, and a girl whose 
 homeland feels fractured—dares to unite us on the shore of shared human 
 experience, and redefines hope in the face of despair. I want to read this 
 book every single day. I want to live in a world where the beauty of 
 strangers is a heartsong.”  \n—Lidia Yuknavitch, author of Verge 
 \n\n“It is one thing to put a human face on a migrant crisis and another 
 to do so in so compelling a way that a reader simply cannot put your book 
 down. I read this in one sitting, my heart pounding the whole way—in a 
 strange paradise, you might say. Marvelous.”\n—Gish Jen, author of The 
 Resisters\n https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2022/02/03/18847741.php
SUMMARY:POSTPONED Online Reading and discussion with Omar El Akkad, author of What Strange Paradise
LOCATION:Revolution Books, 2444 Durant Ave. Berkeley CA 94704
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2022/02/03/18847741.php
DTSTART:20220228T010000Z
DTEND:20220228T030000Z
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