Recently, I have been reading two books. The first is a non-fiction work by British journalist Tim Marshall called The Power of Geography. It explores international diplomacy and presents ‘ten maps that reveal the future of our world’. Marshall discusses the geopolitical climate of various nations, including Australia, Saudi Arabia and The United Kingdom, aiming to make geographical and historical ideas accessible to the average reader. While I have been learning from this book, my heart is not in it. The facts and figures are no more than numbers on a page.
The second book is fiction. Songbirds by Christy Lefteri has left me heartbroken for characters I know are fictional because I know there are men, women and children who genuinely experience the narrative’s harrowing events. The novel depicts a Sri Lankan domestic worker, ‘Nisha’, in Cyprus who cares for a woman and her young daughter. These foreign domestic workers are commonplace in middle-class communities in Cyprus.
When Nisha suddenly disappears, her true life is revealed. We see the reality of life for foreign domestic workers who had no choice but to leave their homes to provide for their families via remittances. These women, surrendering their liberty to their employers, are often led under false pretences, believing a better life awaits them abroad. Usually, there is no way back.
Marshall describes the migration channels from the Middle East and Asia to Europe and highlights the concerns of host nations about how to tackle the ‘problem’ of migration. “Greece will be corralling large numbers of migrants and refugees for years to come”. News headlines tell of the horrors of “swarms” of migrants. These people with real lives, emotions, pain and worries are described as no more than invasive pests. It is easy not to contest these biased views. Ashamedly, until I engaged with fiction which told the other side, I am not sure I did.
Fiction humanises people and reminds us that they are more than numbers. Fictional stories and characters reveal the truth. Other fiction books such as Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns recount the stories of people living in war-torn countries such as Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban. Christy Lefteri’s most famous book The Beekeeper of Aleppo harrowingly depicts a Syrian couple who flee to the UK. These books are based on real events and bring the facts and figures to life. In reading fiction, I have learnt more about the realities of migration than I ever could have from reading non-fiction and media reports. Reading these books broke through the desensitised barriers that so many of us have from years of reading the news.
There are two sides to every story. Are you ready to listen?
Further Reading:
The Power of Geography by Tim Marshall (2021)
Songbirds by Christy Lefteri (2021)
BBC News. (2015). David Cameron: ‘Swarm’ of migrants crossing Mediterranean. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-33714282
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri (2019)
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (2003)
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (2007)
“New Fiction” by Pesky Library is licenced under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.