FREE delivery to all EXCLUSIVE BOOKS stores nationwide. FREE delivery to your door on all orders over R450. Excludes all international deliveries.

CloseClose
CloseClose
Close

What Strange Paradise

Omar El Akkad

    Product form
      FORMAT: Paperback / softback

      R 230.00 Price and availability exclusive to website

      YOU COULD EARN 230 FUTURE RETAIL DISCOUNTS.
      ESTIMATED DELIVERY: Approx. 15 - 20 Business Days
      BUY NOW PAY LATER
      From R 38.33 per month!
      3x monthly payments of R 76.66 with
      4x fortnightly payments of R 57.50 with
      ‘Deserves to be an instant classic. I haven’t loved a book this much in a long time . . . What Strange Paradise . . . reads as a parable for our times . . . Such beautiful writing . . . This is an extraordinary book.’ – New York TimesFrom the widely acclaimed author of American War, Omar El Akkad, a beautifully written, unrelentingly dramatic and profoundly moving novel that brings the global refugee crisis down to the level of a child’s eyes.More bodies have washed up on the shores of a small island. Another over-filled, 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 in their homelands. And only one had made the passage: nine-year-old Amir, a Syrian boy who has the good fortune to fall into the hands not of the officials, but of Vänna: a teenage girl, native to the island, who lives inside her own sense of homelessness in a place and among people she has come to disdain. And though Vänna and Amir are complete strangers and don’t speak a common language, Vänna determines to do whatever it takes to save him.In alternating chapters, we learn the story of Amir’s life and of how he came to be on the ship; and we follow the duo as they make their way towards a vision of safety. But as the novel unfurls, we begin to understand that this is not merely the story of two children finding their way through a hostile world. Omar El Akkad’s What Strange Paradise is the story of our collective moment in this time: of empathy and indifference, of hope and despair – and of the way each of those things can blind us to reality, or guide us to a better one.
      CONTRIBUTORS: Omar El Akkad EAN: 9781529069495 COUNTRY: United Kingdom PAGES: WEIGHT: 188 g HEIGHT: 197 cm
      PUBLISHED BY: Pan Macmillan DATE PUBLISHED: CITY: GENRE: FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Friendship, FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Life Stages / School Age, FICTION / Literary, FICTION / Political, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Emigration & Immigration WIDTH: 130 cm SPINE:

      Book Themes:

      Crete, Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary, Thriller / suspense fiction, Sea stories, Narrative theme: Displacement, exile, migration, Narrative theme: Sense of place, Narrative theme: Social issues, Aiding escape and evasion, Migration, immigration and emigration, Child welfare and youth services
      ‘Deserves to be an instant classic. I haven’t loved a book this much in a long time . . . What Strange Paradise . . . reads as a parable for our times . . . Such beautiful writing . . . This is an extraordinary book.’ – New York TimesFrom the widely acclaimed author of American War, Omar El Akkad, a beautifully written, unrelentingly dramatic and profoundly moving novel that brings the global refugee crisis down to the level of a child’s eyes.More bodies have washed up on the shores of a small island. Another over-filled, 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 in their homelands. And only one had made the passage: nine-year-old Amir, a Syrian boy who has the good fortune to fall into the hands not of the officials, but of Vänna: a teenage girl, native to the island, who lives inside her own sense of homelessness in a place and among people she has come to disdain. And though Vänna and Amir are complete strangers and don’t speak a common language, Vänna determines to do whatever it takes to save him.In alternating chapters, we learn the story of Amir’s life and of how he came to be on the ship; and we follow the duo as they make their way towards a vision of safety. But as the novel unfurls, we begin to understand that this is not merely the story of two children finding their way through a hostile world. Omar El Akkad’s What Strange Paradise is the story of our collective moment in this time: of empathy and indifference, of hope and despair – and of the way each of those things can blind us to reality, or guide us to a better one.
      CONTRIBUTORS: Omar El Akkad EAN: 9781529069495 COUNTRY: United Kingdom PAGES: WEIGHT: 188 g HEIGHT: 197 cm
      PUBLISHED BY: Pan Macmillan DATE PUBLISHED: CITY: GENRE: FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Friendship, FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Life Stages / School Age, FICTION / Literary, FICTION / Political, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Emigration & Immigration WIDTH: 130 cm SPINE:

      Book Themes:

      Crete, Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary, Thriller / suspense fiction, Sea stories, Narrative theme: Displacement, exile, migration, Narrative theme: Sense of place, Narrative theme: Social issues, Aiding escape and evasion, Migration, immigration and emigration, Child welfare and youth services

      Customer Reviews

      Be the first to write a review
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      0%
      (0)
      Omar El Akkad is the author of American War and What Strange Paradise. Born in Cairo, Egypt, he was raised in Doha, Qatar, until he moved to Canada with his family. He is an award-winning journalist and author who has covered the NATO-led war in Afghanistan, the military trials at Guantanamo Bay, the Arab Spring revolution in Egypt, the Black Lives Matter movement in Ferguson, Missouri, and many other of the most important events of the last decade. He is a recipient of Canada’s National Newspaper Award for investigative reporting and the Goff Penny Memorial Prize for Young Canadian Journalists, as well as three National Magazine Award honourable mentions. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

      Book Partnerships

      For the Fans

      Recently viewed products

      Close