THE GARDEN

This is the story of Elias, a
Damascene boy whose family escapes the horrors of the Syrian civil war.

Elias is only a kid when he and his
younger brother, Moussa, are kidnapped and held captive in their father’s medical
clinic. Moussa is killed when an explosion hits the building, but Elias is
freed in the chaos. As a consequence of this loss and the mounting insecurity
in their neighborhood, Elias’ family decides it is time to abandon everything
they possess and leave their country. They find refuge in a tent village in
neighboring Lebanon, where they are surrounded by other traumatized families,
before their application for asylum to Canada is accepted. Once again, they
leave their world behind them and head toward a new life, where the culture
shock and challenges of a new reality set in. The author is largely
successful in conveying the sense of trauma and loss typical to all refugees’
journeys. Chapters that end with cliffhangers that will hook the attention of reluctant
readers alternate between the Middle East and Canada, offering some respite
between emotion-charged scenes. Notwithstanding some unnecessary clichés, this
brief novel is a powerful testimony—inspiring and tear-jerking at times—to the
plight of refugees looking forward to a new life while attempting not to forget
those they met in the journey and had to leave behind.

Poignant. (author interview) (Fiction. 12-17)