Book Review: Sea Prayer

Name of the book: Sea Prayer

Name of the Author :  Khaled Hosseini

Year of publishing: 2018

The publisher: Riverhead books

Number of Pages: 48

The Story:

Sea prayer is a book with beautiful illustrations and very few lines. It’s written in the form of a letter by a refugee father to his son in the eve of their escape through the sea. Hosseini wrote the book as an homage to the death of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy whose body washed up on the beach in Turkey in September 2015.

My review :

Even though I have read Hosseini’s two books, “A thousand splendid suns” and “The kite runner”, I have never heard of the book Sea Prayer before. When I saw the book in the library, I picked it up immediately. To my surprise, the book was very short, hardly have 50 pages. The earlier books of Hosseini were moderately long. Curious enough, once home, I started reading it immediately!

The gorgeous illustrations were the very first thing I noticed. Later I read the few words in between them. It took only ten minutes to finish the whole book. The illustration by Dan Williams narrate the story in itself. The bright colors of joy and happy times. The dark shades to emphasis the crisis.

As I was reading the book for some reason the words reminded me of a boy whose picture I saw a few years ago in the newspaper. Immediately after reading the book, I did a quick google research and found the picture again. It was Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian boy.

As I went through the related posts, I found out that ever since that incident at least 8,500 refugees and migrants have died or gone missing trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea. Needless to say, it was heart-breaking. With a heavy heart, I went ahead and read the book several times.

The book summarises the horrible consequences of war. But not many of us really understand the struggles of the victims. They are forced to leave their home country forever. The only way to survive is the dangerous journey ahead. All of a sudden, people who were surrounded by families and friends become orphans.

Conclusion:

This wonderful book reminds us to thank God for the luxury each of us lives in. There are millions of refugees out there striving for a safe place, who lost their beloved ones in the course of their journey. Sea Prayer delivers a great message to all of us. It explains the bitter truth of war and it’s repercussions. Further more, a reminder to be kind to people who seek help.

Time for YOUR action:

Have you read any heartbreaking stories of refugees? Or are you someone who experienced it? Let me know in the comments. Or drop me an email yourbosomfriendblog@gmail.com.