ISBN |
9780385544023 (paperback) |
Name |
Bala, Sharon author. |
Title |
The boat people / Sharon Bala. |
Published |
New York : Doubleday, [2018] |
©2018 |
Description |
338 pages ; 24 cm |
Notes |
"A novel"--Cover. |
Summary |
"For readers of Khaled Hosseini and Chris Cleave, The Boat People is an extraordinary novel about a group of refugees who survive a perilous ocean voyage only to face the threat of deportation amid accusations of terrorism When a rusty cargo ship carrying Mahindan and five hundred fellow refugees from Sri Lanka's bloody civil war reaches Vancouver's shores, the young father thinks he and his six-year-old son can finally start a new life. Instead, the group is thrown into a detention processing center, with government officials and news headlines speculating that among the "boat people" are members of a separatist militant organization responsible for countless suicide attacks--and that these terrorists now pose a threat to Canada's national security. As the refugees become subject to heavy interrogation, Mahindan begins to fear that a desperate act taken in Sri Lanka to fund their escape may now jeopardize his and his son's chance for asylum. Told through the alternating perspectives of Mahindan; his lawyer, Priya, a second-generation Sri Lankan Canadian who reluctantly represents the refugees; and Grace, a third-generation Japanese Canadian adjudicator who must decide Mahindan's fate as evidence mounts against him, The Boat People is a spellbinding and timely novel that provokes a deeply compassionate lens through which to view the current refugee crisis"-- |
"A debut novel about a thirty-five-year-old Sri Lankan refugee who has survived the harrowing experiences of civil war, a prison camp, and a perilous ocean voyage to Canada -- but his journey has only begun, as he and his young son navigate the morass of the refugee system"-- |
Subjects |
Sri Lankans -- Canada -- Fiction |
Detention of persons -- Canada -- Fiction |
Refugees -- Canada -- Fiction |
Fathers and sons -- Fiction |
Canada -- Race relations -- Fiction |
Genre |
Legal fiction (Literature) |
Domestic fiction |
Links to Related Works |
Subject References:
Authors:
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