Refuge: A Novel Hardcover – 13 July 2017

Loved this book. Amazing relationship between opium addicted father and refugee daughter seen during their four visits together in different parts of the world. Sad to let them go when it ended.

I wanted to like this book more but I just didn’t enjoy Bahman’s segments. They didn’t flow as nicely as Niloo’s.The story itself follows a family as they split up and seek refuge in the US while their father, an opium addict, stays in Iran. Their relationship stays very strained throughout their lives. After fighting so hard to shake off her refuge status, Niloo finds comfort in spending time with other Iranian refugees in her new home, The Netherlands, while she tries to find her life’s direction.

This is a beautiful book, heartbreaking at times and I could not put it down. It's stylistically interestingly written, switching between different time periods and perspectives, which keeps the reader from getting all the answers at once and makes you slowly uncover the story. The characters are multi-dimensional and I found myself feeling sympathy with Niloo and her father one minute and being annoyed with them the next. The book gives a personal account of what it might be like to be a refugee, while at the same time highlighting the larger situation and struggles of many immigrants and asylum seekers.

Niloo is a daddy’s girl, but in the late 1980’s, when she is just 8 years old, she leaves Iran with her mother and brother and believes her dear father will join them soon. But this does not happen and over the next twenty years, she only sees her father four times.The story tells of Niloo’s marriage and her journey to belong somewhere. She meets an older Iranian man at a poetry meeting, along with a few other ‘refugees’ and the connection brings back memories of Iran and her beloved father.I haven’t read many immigrant books so this was quite an eye-opener. This book is semi-autobiographical, and digs deep into Niloo’s feelings and that of her father; two people wanting to belong, but unsure about giving up their origins.The book is well written and tugs at the heart strings. It is hard to empathise with the characters if you haven’t gone through the things they have, but this book goes a long way in helping to understand what it must be like not to belong in the world which surrounds you.“Refuge” is a must read for anyone who has little understanding of the struggles immigrants face in their chosen countries.SeshatBreakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review