By: Abeeha Shahid
After pictures of the body of a three-year-old, Syrian boy washed up on the shores of a Turkish beach began circulating the internet in September 2015, Khaled Hosseini, an Afghan-American novelist, and physician felt impelled to write the story, Sea Prayer. In an interview, Hosseini expressed, “I am a father of two, so my entry point into the terrible saga was through the viewpoint of Kurdi’s father. I envisioned this piece as a monologue between a father and his son, and when I sat down to write it the voice that came out was simple and I hope somewhat melodic.”
With a heart-wrenching story, it is the first illustrated book by the author, through which he hopes to pay tribute to the millions of families like Kurdi’s who have been splintered and forced from their homes and to those who have lost their lives to war and persecution. Khaled Hosseini is the Good Envoy to the UNHCR (UN High Commission on Refugees) and the founder of The Khaled Hosseini Foundation (a non-profit that provides humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan) and all author proceedings will go to the UNHCR and The Khaled Hosseini Foundation to help fund life-saving relief efforts to help refugees across the globe.
Sea prayer is a letter from a father to his son, a prayer carried off by the wind into the wind. It starts with a father cradling his son, Marwan, on the shores of Homs, Syria late at night recalling the memories of his childhood and what Homs used to before the missiles fell and tore apart their homeland, with fondness before he embarks on a perilous journey across the sea. He wishes his son could remember the city as he did, bustling and full of life. He talks about a time that seems so far away that even to him it sounds, “Like some long-dissolved rumour,”
Hosseini’s words paint a sharp contrast between the city as it was before and as it is now. The warmth and joy the father talks about is unfamiliar to Marwan for to him his reality, as described by his father is;
“The skies spitting bombs.
Starvation.
Burial.
These are the things you know.”
He is more familiar with destruction, devastation, finding the bodies of his family and classmates in narrow gaps between concrete, how dark blood means good news as opposed to bright. He learned how to transform bomb craters into swimming holes- creating a particularly harrowing image of him still preserving the heartbreaking naivety and innocence of childhood.
Standing at the edge of the shore, Marwan’s father thinks about how refugees around the world are received by other countries;
“ I heard it is said we are the uninvited.
We are the unwelcome.
We should take our misfortune elsewhere.”
Through his book, Hosseini manages to show how unjust this treatment and ideology is and the stigma should be eradicated. The refugees simply wish to live and find safety for their family. Marwan’s father tells him that he knows his mother is there, watching over them and offering words of comfort when he feels helpless against the unforgiving sea and the world that awaits them;
“ ‘ Oh, but if they saw, my darling.
Even half of what you have.
If only they saw.
They would say kinder things surely.’ ”
As the boat arrives and Marwan’s father reassures him that it would alright but he knows those are just words, an empty promise made by a father who knows not what destiny holds for them and all he can do is pray that the sea realizes Marwan is precious cargo and steers them towards safety.
We don’t get to see the family’s actual voyage, and we don’t know what happens to them or if they make it to their destination. The ambiguity of the ending is reflective of the very real uncertainty refugee families face when they are torn from their homes. The hope for a better ending prompts the readers to try in any way they can, no matter how small, to make sure the journey of families like Marwan’s is one of triumph rather than tragedy.
The writing though concise is hauntingly beautiful, the words leave a lasting impact taking the reader on a heartbreaking journey along with the father trying to escape a war-torn country with his son. We feel the father’s desperation to keep his son safe, his fears as he looks over the endless expanse of the sea, having placed his faith in a tiny boat in the vast uncontrollable waters, and his prayers as he decides to leave his homeland behind in search of security. We wish along with Marwan’s father for him to remember his home as his father does, not as the epicenter of violence and the sea to be little kinder to the little boy who only knows death and loss.
Dan Williams watercolor illustrations form an unforgettable companion to Hosseini’s lyrical prose. The hazy and impressionistic art style mirrors the fleeting nature of memory and the elusive quality of the tale that Marwan’s father tells him. Syria from the father’s memories is being changed and contorted by the violence and bloodshed into a much darker place. This contrast is represented by William’s art as Marwan’s father’s memories before the war are painted full of lush, warm colours of reds, greens, and yellows but the colours bleed out of the palette as the narrative shifts to the harsh reality of the present giving way to slate greys, blues and black, only returning to the greens and gold on the last page as Marwan’s father completes his prayer for safety.
With its brevity and lilting tone, Sea Prayer is a deeply moving book that leaves a lasting impact. It humanizes migrants more successfully than journalist photographs’ and articles by detaching the story from politics and letting it be about a father and his son who are more than just faceless, “illegal” migrants. The book is definitely worth reading and being only 42 pages it takes about fifteen minutes to read.
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