August 2023 – Immigration and Migration

Leaving one place to pick up life in another can often be the basis for a story. What made them leave? What did they hope to find in the place they moved to? There have been mass migrations written about which have been attributed those migrations to particular causes but each individual’s movement from one place to another was part of their own personal story.

As a family historian living in North America, I have been told to look for the immigrant in my family to find a story to write about. That leaves me with a quandary as it doesn’t narrow down the people to write about as they all, in their own way, have moved from one place to another after being pushed out or moving to what they thought was a place with better possibilities. I have a wide array of nonfiction books on the subject but there are also works of fiction that are based on the movement of people. Immigration and migration has had a lot written about it and has happened throughout history from the time of the ancients first leaving Africa. Have fun finding books for this topic.

Here is the link to the Monthly Theme Wiki:

https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Reading_Through_Time_Challenge

I am looking forward to reading Gabriel's Story by David Anthony Durham. This book takes a look at the westward migration of many black families after the end of the Civil War, and how many formed their own small towns.

For a quick read, I'm thinking of doing Christina Baker Kline's Orphan Train, which I just stumbled across doing some book-boxing (and I hope I can remember where I set it down).

For non-human migrants, I've got Keith Bildstein's Migrating Raptors of the World: Their Ecology and Conservation. Keith's the now-retired Director of Conservation Science at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. HMS's migration research was used heavily by Rachel Carson in writing Silent Spring.

For non-human fictional migrants, I might do a reread of Watership Down if I can find my really beautiful illustrated edition where I think it is.

I've got a surprising number of human "immigration and migration" books in various TBR piles and boxes. I'll have to give some more thought to some of them.

I will go with either Orphan Train or Dragonwings; maybe both!

I’ve had The Warmth of Other Suns on my WL since reading Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste a few years ago. This would be a great time to read it if I’m able to sit down to another 700- page book. Another possibility is Gabriela Garcia’s Of Women and Salt.

>3 DeltaQueen50: Gabriel's Story looks like an interesting one, Judy. Most of the migrations of black families I've read about happened later but it makes sense that those migrations would have started right after the Civil War.

>4 CurrerBell: Good luck making your choice amongst all those possibilities!

>5 Tess_W: Both look like good choices, Tess.

>6 dianelouise100: Warmth of Other Suns is a tome. I stopped midway through. Maybe I should pick it up again for August. Of Women and Salt looks like an interesting possibility and, according to Google, is 224 pages.

>6 dianelouise100: Warmth of Other Suns is a tome. I stopped midway through. Maybe I should pick it up again for August. Of Women and Salt looks like an interesting possibility and, according to Google, is 224 pages.

>6 dianelouise100: Warmth of Other Suns is a tome. I stopped midway through. Maybe I should pick it up again for August. Of Women and Salt looks like an interesting possibility and, according to Google, is 224 pages.

I think I'm going to be reading Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi!

>13 Katie-Rose: Good luck with Transcendent Kingdom I found that a hard read.

>13 Katie-Rose: I thought both Gyasi’s novels contained such difficult material to read, but worth the struggle imo. I still can’t decide which I like better, Homegoing or Transcendent Kingdom, all in all Homegoing was the more difficult subject matter to me. Will be eager to see what you think.

>4 CurrerBell: I've got a surprising number of human "immigration and migration" books in various TBR piles and boxes. I'll have to give some more thought to some of them.

me too, from several of the themes here including Outcasts and Castaways that might contain some interesting works.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/340429

one book from that topic I meant to read was after the romanovs which looks very good

An interesting book the necessary beggar is a galactical migration of a family from another dimenson being exiled to earth. I had mixed feelings about it esp at the end, but the beginning is very much a story of migrants dealing with the unknown .

>15 dianelouise100: I couldnt read either of them, not due to the writing, but there is no let up on the subject matter.

>17 cindydavid4: No, I didn’t find her writing style difficult, but in Homegoing I agree that her intensity makes a very sad subject even more painful. Both are fine novels, 5* for me, and this talk is making me think of rereading Transcendent Kingdom. It fits this topic so well.

>17 cindydavid4: >18 dianelouise100: The subjects of the books are dark and, I find, that makes it harder to pick up a book as I read further. Good luck with whatever you choose.

there are some books that I cannot read; the room and lovely bones come to mind. Maybe it the experince in college of volunteering at the Victim Witness program, and later in women sheltrs Ive seen and heard so much it would break my heart to read these. For some reason I can read Holocaust books, tho even those can be problemsome for me. I am sure the two books above are excellent but they are among the ones I cant read

The only book I see on my shelves that fits this topic is The Fatal Shore. That's a chunkster, and although I do want to read it at some point, I'm not really in the mood for that this month. I may have to skip this challenge.

>20 cindydavid4: I know where you're coming from Cindy. There are some books I cannot read, or not too many of that type within a certain period of time. I have read Room but I can understand why some people cannot. I have read many Holocaust memoirs, though I have not been able to face tackling Martin Gilbert's mammoth survey of the whole Holocaust experience.

martin gilbert was the husband of my cousin. After his death she started up a online newsletter speaking of his work. Helps me take a small bite from those memoirs but like you I can not imagine tackling that survey

>20 cindydavid4: Those books are hard ones. I read The Lovely Bones but found it hard to get through and, although it is somewhere in my stacks, I haven't pulled Room out to read.

>21 atozgrl: That's too bad but I can understand needing to be in the mood to read a chunkster. I'm not doing very well getting to the end of books for challenges this year myself.

I’ve thought about listening to Transcendent Kingdom since I read it before, and have just discovered that Bahni Turpin is the Audible narrator. She’s a favorite, so on the list that goes. Can hopefully get to it this month.

>26 dianelouise100: Good luck fitting that in for this month.

I haven't yet decided what to read for this theme, or even really started thinking about it..

I've completed my read of Gabriel's Story by David Anthony Durham. Black migration after the American Civil War is a very small part of this story but I was very impressed with the author's creativity.

>28 john257hopper: There's still time.

>29 DeltaQueen50: It sounds like an interesting story, Judy, and one that definitely fits the challenge.

Just started reading after the romanovs.

>32 cindydavid4: From the reviews that appears to be a book about ongoing migration. Looks interesting.

A reminder to everyone to enter their read on the monthly wiki once they've finished their book.

I read Dragonwings by Laurence Yep. This is the story of 8-year-old Moonshadow who lives in China with his mother and extended family. His father, Windrider, has gone to Demon Land (the U.S.), specifically San Francisco. Windrider works on the railroad and has earned enough money to bring a family member to the U.S.--he chooses Moonshadow. This is the story of Moonshadow's journey from China to the U.S. as well as his life after he arrives. It's a decent story, although I did not care for the fantasy section where Moonshadow relates to others that he was a dragon in a previous life, with the gift of healing. He is now a human in this life because of hubris as a dragon. Sigh......245 pages. It's a good time period piece if one can tolerate the fantasy bits.

>35 Tess_W: Sounds like an interesting one, Tess. Too bad about the fantasy bits.

I think I am going to read Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah for this months challenge. It is set in east Africa and is historical and about a forced migration. In this case the hero of the novel is stolen and ends up in a German army unit in WWI fighting in East Africa. I think this will fit the category, but if someone has already read it and doesn't think so - let me know. I can find another one on my immense TBR list.

It does, but theres a whole lot else involved But that does lead to some of the other so its probably a good pic

>37 benitastrnad: >38 cindydavid4: Sounds like it fits to me. I hope it's a good read, Benita.

I’ve finished Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia. This novel is set in present day Miami and Cuba and is about Carmel, who emigrated in the early years of Castro’s regime, and Jeanette, her adult daughter, 28 years old and an addict who is often in detox. Family dynamics are important here:mother and daughter seem to have a caustic effect on each other both before and after the father’s death. Juxtaposed to this family are more recent illegal immigrants, Gloria and her daughter, 7-year old Ana. They live near Jeanette, and when Gloria is picked up by ICE while Ana is in school, Jeanette offers Ana a place to stay. The set up is interesting, and this novel did keep my attention, but the story jumped around in time too much for me to follow with any ease. I didn’t like it much and might not have finished had it not been for this challenge. Fortunately, it was short.
3*

>40 dianelouise100: Too bad that it wasn't a better read for you. It sounds like it would have been an interesting story.

>41 Familyhistorian: I found the abrupt time shifts kept me from being sure what event would precede Jeanette’s starting to use again. It’s quite possible it was me, not the book, and it is an interesting story with a lot of believable detail about how illegal immigrants have been treated in this country.

>42 dianelouise100: Could it have been written with those abrupt time shifts to keep the reader on edge, to give a feeling of what living with an addict can be like?

I read From These Shores by Helga Skogsbergh (1975). This is a one-volume abridgement of Helga Skogsbergh's three autobiographical novels about her family's homestead on the southern shores of Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin. Originally published as Comes the Day, Comes a Way (1960); From These Shores (1963); and That Was Then (1969), this 1975 edition is an abridgement which has selected chapters from each of the 3 volumes.

The story focuses on two young couples, the Hansons and the Isaksons, who have immigrated in the 1880s from Sweden to Duluth, Minnesota. In 1891 the two men are enticed by a call for families to homestead across Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin, near Ashland (their settlement would later be known as Port Wing). They must clear the land, make improvements, and if they stay at least 5 years, the land is theirs. The men spend many months traveling back & forth across the lake from Spring until Fall building two cabins. In Fall 1892 they pack up their families, now with infants, and travel by steamer across the Lake with all their belongings, some furniture and a cow.

What was most interesting is that the books are more from the two women's points of view, as Skogsbergh is relating the stories her mother told (here called Mama Hanson). It relates their hard work, loneliness (their husbands are away weeks at a time at a logging camp), howling lake winds, privations and learning to help one another during high points and low points, childbirth and infant burials. Once Winter sets in no steamers (with provisions from Duluth) can cross the frozen lake, so everything must be made to last until the following Spring.

The first book covers through about 1895. The second book begins when Ingrid Hanson (representing the author) starts school. Their small town grows; churches and schools are built; and the second volume concludes about 1910, when Ingrid is ready to leave for college in the Big City (aka Minneapolis). The last book is the author's/Ingrid's reflections on returning to the shores in her 70s and how the town and the times have changed. There is an over-riding steadfastness and faith which keeps these immigrants surviving and thriving. Told as a novel, but knowing that the basic storylines were true, I found this an effective and moving way to tell an immigrant family's story.

>43 Familyhistorian: I hadn’t thought of that—great point! Thanks.

>44 kac522: That looks like an interesting telling of the history of a family and a community. Nice that it was from the women's point of view.

>45 dianelouise100: Hopefully that thought makes the after taste of the book a bit better.

>46 Familyhistorian: She changed the names and made the exact location fuzzy, but a little bit of genealogy sleuthing found the families in Port Wing, Bayfield County, WI, so that was kind of fun, too.

>48 kac522: Good detecting!

Jeez, I missed following along in this discussion all month. I guess I never popped by to mention what I was planning to read (though that one is still to come!). I did just finish one (see below) that will count for migration, though not immigration. It was not the one I'd originally planned, but I suspect I'll still get to it, as well.

One Thousand White Women / Jim Fergus.
3.5 stars

In 1875, the US Government made a deal with the Cheyenne to provide them with 1000 white women to marry (according to the author’s note, this was a real request, but it was never agreed to… except for purposes of this book). They would have the indigenous men’s children, then raise them in a white world, thereby being a bridge between the two cultures. The women would also help to assimilate/convert the indigenous peoples. The women were to be volunteers.

May Dodd (along with some others), had been living in an asylum. She had children with a man who wasn’t her husband; they lived together and were very happy. But this made her promiscuous, according to her family, and therefore insane so she should live the rest of her life in an asylum. This deal to be a wife to a Cheyenne man provided May a way out of the asylum. Other women also agreed to this, some from asylums, others who might have been incarcerated. Some maybe just wanted the adventure.

This was told mostly in diary form, with a few letters, as well. It started off pretty slow for me, but got better once the women were living with the Cheyenne. I quite liked many of the characters and the friendships that developed between them. I also think the book did a good job of showing the culture shock, and the women trying to fit in to this new culture.

The tension increased with a big event toward the end of the book, and I did like the way it ended with a couple of external voices to the main part of the story. I wasn’t sure at first, but I ended up liking it enough to read the sequel. I almost increased my rating just slightly, but decided to keep it at “good”, as that’s where it sat for the bulk of the book.

Les Raisins de la galère caught my eye at the charity shop and I picked it because it is short. Time is running away from me, again.
It's the story of a young woman of Algerian descent living in one of the banlieues around Paris, told in the first person as she reflects on her life. She has decided to be different, goes to university, enters politics to make a change, and yet feels hemmed in everywhere by the expectations of her community.

>51 LibraryCin: An interesting story of migration, strange to think that there was an actual proposal like that in real life. I can see why a writer would have plenty to explore with that premise.

>52 MissWatson: The months do seem to go quickly. The book sounds like it was set in an earlier period of history or is that just because the woman is older now and looking back on her life?

I decided for this month's theme to read another account by a North Korean defector, The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector's Story by Hyeonseo Lee.

This is an account of the author's childhood growing up in the North Korean town of Hyesan, on the banks of the Yalu river that borders China. The horrors of life in North Korea are vividly recounted, but in some ways in a matter of fact way, as these experiences were normal for anyone growing up there in the 80s and 90s, with no point of comparison - witnessing her first public execution at the age of 7 and seeing starvation during the 90s as the economy collapses after subsidies from the fallen Soviet Union dry up. She escapes to China in late 1997 just before her 18th birthday and spends several years in Shenyang and Shanghai, including various narrow escapes, but she shows great resourcefulness and is able to thank her lucky stars that she learned some Chinese characters as a child. She eventually ends up in South Korea. She eventually succeeds in persuading her mother and younger brother to escape. But there are powerful drivers pulling the family members in all directions - her mother, now in her 50s, has grown up, married, raised children and lived her life in a society with an utterly different mentality and after a while yearns to return to the North, regardless of the risks of capture, imprisonment or death; and her brother pines for his fiancée, whom he fails to persuade to follow him into China, owing to the risk it will cause for her parents. The author encapsulates the dilemmas in her introduction: "..... I still love my country and miss it very much....Even for those who have suffered unimaginably there and have escaped hell, life in the free world can be so challenging that many struggle to come to terms with it and find happiness... a small number of them even give up, and return to live in that dark place, as I was tempted to do, many times." Migration, even to what is objectively a much better life situation, still carries with its own contradictions and conflicted emotions.

Another really good book on immigration and migration would be Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. This book is about Korean immigrations to Japan from the beginning of the 20th century through the 1960's. I loved the book and found that it gives a completely different view of the relationship between Japan and North and South Korea. It is also very relevant given that the U.S., Korea, and Japan will be having talks about cooperating on defense of the South China Sea and there is disturbance in Korea over the talks. This historical novel might help to explain why there is dissent in Korea regarding these talks.

>53 Familyhistorian: Kinda crazy, isn't it?

>55 john257hopper: The story about the migrants from North Korean sounds like a good illustration of the forces causing people to migrate and the consequences they have to live with when they do.

>56 benitastrnad: Portraying the history and issues through fiction can be a good way to illustrate the issues.

>53 Familyhistorian: Very! I never thought that a native group would propose something like that. It makes me question how they are usually portrayed.

>54 Familyhistorian: It was published in 1996, and the book ends shortly before that with Nadia still in her thirties, having just missed being elected in the local elections, when she takes stock and decides to carry on.

>58 Familyhistorian: yes indeed.

>56 benitastrnad: I also have that book, but have not read it yet.

>61 MissWatson: Thanks for the clarification on the time period.

>53 Familyhistorian: According to my research, there was never such a proposal. The only thing "true" in the book is the character Little Wolf and the murders he committed, as well as the forced marches. If anybody else finds anything different, I'm all ears!

>65 Tess_W: Thanks for doing that research, Tess. The whole premise is intriguing.

One of my absolutely favourite stories about immigration is Ann Pinchot and Henry Jelinek Jr.'s "On Thin Ice". Henry was the brother of Maria and Otto Jelinek, a sibling figure skating pair from Czechoslovakia who defected to Canada (under very dangerous circumstances) after World War II. The Jelinek's returned to Prague and won the World Figure Skating Championships in 1962 and Otto went on to serve as a cabinet minister in Canada's Parliament. When the Canadian Championships came to Halifax in 2016, the Pier 21 National Museum of Immigration highlighted the Jelinek's story (among many others) in an exhibit on immigration's role in the figure skating world called Perfect Landings:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/canadian-immigration-exhibit-perfect-...

The book is a wonderful read and a fascinating glimpse at life 'behind the Iron Curtain' in post-War Czechoslovakia.

One of my absolutely favourite stories about immigration is Ann Pinchot and Henry Jelinek Jr.'s "On Thin Ice". Henry was the brother of Maria and Otto Jelinek, a sibling figure skating pair from Czechoslovakia who defected to Canada (under very dangerous circumstances) after World War II. The Jelinek's returned to Prague and won the World Figure Skating Championships in 1962 and Otto went on to serve as a cabinet minister in Canada's Parliament. When the Canadian Championships came to Halifax in 2016, the Pier 21 National Museum of Immigration highlighted the Jelinek's story (among many others) in an exhibit on immigration's role in the figure skating world called Perfect Landings:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/canadian-immigration-exhibit-perfect-...

The book is a wonderful read and a fascinating glimpse at life 'behind the Iron Curtain' in post-War Czechoslovakia.

I finished after the romanovs At the end of it, I had a fairly good overview of the many groups and individuas over the 50 year period from 1900 onwards. she begins with a 16 page listing of names of royalty, all assuming their exile will be short. when the realize it will be forever, they each find ways to live and many ended up poor and homeless. in fact I did find that so many of them had the same story and it stopped being interesting still Id recommend it, and rate a 4*

If you want to read about this with a more personal focus, you must read Memories:from moscow to the black sea by Teffi. She was a very well known humorist and popular journalist in Russiam known for her wit and sharp writing. When she realizes she must escape she joins a group of writers, artists and royalty for the trip to Paris. The story of their journey is told by a true story teller

>67 SkateGuard: That sounds like an interesting read and an interesting exhibit.

>69 cindydavid4: Sad that the tales became repetitive but thanks for the recommendation of the other book told by a story teller.

I always try to read something from my own shelves for these challenges. For this month, I found We Were Strangers Once which related the story of a group of Jewish immigrants from Frankfurt who relocated to New York. As it was during the beginning of WWII, they were escaping but to what? They tended to stick together in the new sometimes strange place they found themselves. Except for Egon who was attracted to an American. That woman was Catrina and her mother had emigrated from Ireland. So, it was a story of immigrants from two different countries, whose experience was similar in some ways and different in others.

>72 Familyhistorian:
Well, that's a Book Bullet.

The Four Winds / Kristin Hannah
4 stars

When Elsa, told over and over by her parents that she is unattractive and won’t amount to anything, finds a boy who likes her (Rafe), she ends up pregnant. Their parents force them to marry, and though Elsa loves Rafe, he does not seem to return the love. By the mid-1930s, they have two kids: Loreda (13) and Anthony (aka Ant, 7?), but life on the farm in the Texas panhandle during the Dust Bowl is incredibly difficult. So difficult, Rafe up and leaves. Elsa, her kids, and his parents (who have grown to love Elsa light a daughter) are left to struggle on their own. After too many dust storms and Ant getting too ill from all the dust, the three of them pack up and head to California. Of course, California is not the place it was made out to be: “the land of milk and honey” it wasn’t!

This was another slow-moving book, but she did such an amazing job describing the conditions – the dust storms and the struggles in Texas, as well as living conditions and struggle for survival once they got to California. It went in a direction I didn’t expect toward the end. It did remind me of “The Grapes of Wrath”, though I don’t recall details on that one; it’s been a long time since I read it.

>73 benitastrnad: Good to see!

>74 LibraryCin: There must have been a lot of migration due to the dust bowl '30s. I hadn't thought of that reason to up stakes and head for new land.

yup. see steinbecks grapes of wrath probably the first book I read that opened my eyes to the sorrows of the world

>76 Familyhistorian: Yeah, a lot of people refused to leave, but many did go. And it seems California was the place to go. The rumors made it sound like there were jobs everywhere, etc, but that was not the reality.

>77 cindydavid4: I've never read Grapes of Wrath. Should probably fit it in one of these days.

>78 LibraryCin: I'm sure there were frequent rumours of better places. Anything for some hope in that desperate situation.

For an unusual choice of migrants and immigrants, I just in today's wee hours finished Keith Bildstein's first major book, Migrating Raptors of the World: Their Ecology and Conservation (2006) 4****. I would rate it higher for myself personally, but it's a bit more technical than the ordinary reader might want. Fortunately, Keith concludes most chapters with a "Summary and Conclusions" section that does a good summing up and there's a good glossary. The photos, however, could have been better and clearer (all b&w and inked onto the page, not as glossy plates), but this was written at a time when Keith didn't have the influence that he would today with the academic press.

Keith is the now-retired conservation director of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, about twenty miles north of Reading PA, the first raptor sanctuary and major migration-tracking center in the world. Rachel Carson relied on Hawk Mountain migration statistics when writing Silent Spring.

These migrating raptors aren't just migrants. Some of them, perhaps blown off course by the winds, become immigrants when they finally alight on a new wintering ground and for whatever reason decide to remain there, not returning to their former spring breeding grounds. Assuming the new wintering ground has sufficient food and the raptor population is large enough, these "immigrants" can wind up developing over time into a new species.

whata great choice!

>81 CurrerBell: What an interesting choice!

>82 cindydavid4: >83 Familyhistorian: Tomorrow, the first Saturday of September, is the annual International Vulture Awareness Day, celebrated worldwide including at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary (HMS), which will have a visiting Turkey Vulture as well as a visiting Black Vulture, the two most common in the Sanctuary's area. (HMS also has its own resident Black Vulture, Igor, whose handler Aaron explains that the bird was adopted because of his poor vision, possibly a result of avian flu, which precluded his post-treatment release.)

Here's a very interesting feature of interspecies cooperation between Turkey Vultures and Black Vultures.

Turkey Vultures have an exquisite sense of smell. They can detect the odors of a dead carcass from over a mile away, something that's extraordinary among avians. Black Vultures, in contrast, can't smell for nuthin'. So when a flock of Black Vultures sees a flock of Turkey Vultures winging it off somewere, the Black Vultures follow along behind, hoping to share in the meal.

Here's what can happen, though, when the two species arrive together at the scene of a meal. Turkey Vultures have hooked beaks which are great for ripping and tearing but not so good for piercing through thick deerskin and other hides. Black Vultures, however, have pointed beaks that are great for doing the piercing. So the Turkey Vultures, having found the meal, let the Black Vultures go in first if there's a thick hide to be pierced, and the Black Vultures get a first taste of some of the luscious innards. Then the Turkey Vultures chase the Black Vultures off and go in for the ripping and tearing, with the Black Vultures often having to wait their turn. Among Turkey Vultures, also, there's a social pecking order, with dominant birds getting the meal before their fellows in the flock. The Black Vultures tend to be more egalitarian, dining in a scrum.

Worldwide, vultures are essential carrion eaters. They were historically very widespread in India, but a disaster occurred in the 1990s and early 2000s when the drug diclofenac began being used as an anti-inflammatory for cattle. Great drug for mammals, but fatal of avians. When the vultures started dining on diclofenac-tainted cows at roadside, the vulture population was devastated. The result was diseases from flies and other pests forming in the now-uneaten carcasses – and still worse, wild dogs replaced vultures in the carrion-chain, with the consequent rabies epidemics among humans.

I like to say that vultures are my favorite birds – cuz they're old buzzards, just like me!

>80 Familyhistorian: Yeah, you're probably right about that.

>84 CurrerBell: Very interesting info about vultures and the bad results of human intervention.

slightly off topic, but Anyone heard f ludwig von wolfgang vulture? a wonderful spoof on Jonathan Livingston seagull an antidote to the latter twee book

>87 cindydavid4: I want it! I want it!

enjoy!

I finished read Afterlives by the Nobel Literature prize winning author Abdulrazak Gurnah and really enjoyed this book. It was the story of three displaced people and how war forced them to migrate and relocate. It is set in German East Africa in the years 1890 - 1960 and covers three generations. Hamza was sold as a child into slavery and grew up as a child soldier in several guerilla armies. He ended up serving with the German army in German East Africa and fighting there in World War I. He learns to read and write in German and this enables him to find work after he is severely wounded. He ends up living in what is now Mozambique and finds the love of his life, was also a child displaced by war. The third person, Ilyas, decides to stay with the German Army when it is repatriated to Germany in 1920.

This was a beautifully written novel and I will certainly read more books by this author. The novel is also relevant to the world of today in that there are still child soldiers in Africa and migration by people escaping war and destitution brought on by war is still a common problem the world over.