On Fragile waves by E. Lily Yu

 

Name of Book: On Fragile Waves

Author: E. Lily Yu

ISBN: 978-1-64566-009-5

Publisher: Erewhon Press

Type of book: modern times, iimmigration Australia, camp, survival, money, friendship, Afghanistan, loyalty, family, duty, upbringing, magical realism, death 

Year it was published: 2021

Summary:

Characters:

Main character is Firuzeh, the eldest daughter. She often refers to her mother and father as abay and atay ( unfortunately there is no glossary for Afghan words...) And is best described as someone caught between multiple worlds of her gender and upbringing. She also has a younger brother Nour and a ghost friend who stayed with her for years and years. There are also mother and father who do the best they can with the given situation and for whom reputation and hospitality is far  more important than mere survival. Nour has far more freedom than Firuzeh, despite him being younger, and also requires a lot of money for his activities.      

Theme:

We are all humans who dream and wish 

Plot:

The story is in third person narrative, primarily from Firuzeh's point of view. When there is focus on Firuzeh, there are no quotation marks to mark the conversations. However when we travel outside of the family, maybe to people helping them with language or whatnot, quotation marks appear, but it feels very distant. The story is primarily of immigration to Australia and of some perils the family had to face. However there is mention of after immigration. 

Author Information:
(From book)

E. Lily Yu received the Artist Trust/LaSalle Storyteller Award in 2017 and the Astounding Award fro Best New Writer in 2012. Her stories appear in venues from McSweeney's to Tor.com and in twelve best-of-the year anthologies, and have been finalists for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Sturgeon and World Fantasy Awards. She has lived on both coasts and holds degrees from Princeton and Cornell. This is her first novel. 

You can find her at eliliyu.com

Opinion:

Reading this book is akin to reading a Nadia Hashimi book. It's a lyrical and beautiful story of dreams, reality and immigration to Australia. It has element of magic as well as exploration of death and I also enjoyed how well the author incorporated the myths into reality because one isn't quite sure what they are reading. I also enjoyed the continuation of life after the family immigrated and of what they had to face just to have a better life than in their hometown. 

This was given for a review 

4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)