'Sea Prayer' by Khaled Hosseini is a book of illustrations and very few words. The lines are short yet poetic and profound, and never fail to present a vivid picture of the Syrian refugee crisis it tries to explain. It’s a father’s words to his little son sleeping in his arms as they wait for a boat that would carry them along with many others across the sea to a safer shore. The story is said to have been inspired by Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy who made headlines across the world when his body washed upon the shore amid the Syrian crisis. (Illustration by Dan Williams)
His latest work Sea Prayer is a departure from those best-selling novels — it's a short work of fiction that captures the heartbreak of the Syrian refugee crisis. It's told as a poetic letter, from a father to a son as they prepare to embark on a journey across the sea, and features the illustrations of Dan Williams.
This is a short war story and in the form of a letter by a father to his son on the eve of their journey fleeing from war-ridden Syria and a prayer to the sea for the safety of his son in this journey.
We all remember the harrowing image of Alan Kurdi, the 3 year old Syrian boy whose body washed upon a beach in Turkey in Sept '15 after drowning in the Mediterranean Sea trying to reach safety in Europe. This book is a tribute to millions of families like his.
It reads like spoken word poetry. The story, heartwarming. His writing style, elegant as always. It reminds us of the perils refugees face while leaving their country, a place they've called home their entire life; how unwelcome they are in other countries; how they are asked to take their misfortune elsewhere. The story starts with the father describing his childhood in Syria and its beauty with its mosques, souks and crowded lanes in contrary to what his son got to witness which is only death, air filled with dust from exploding bombs and families praying for survival. The gorgeous illustrations change as the story develops from displaying green fields & busy lanes to protests, siege and war. Hosseini is one author who can make you feel empathy like no one else
A country with lush green plains and with ordinary hustle bustle is now converted to a battleground. Children born in these years are subjected to the sounds of bombings, hungers and terror everyday.
Khaled Hosseini's touch to this world is to always show the dark side as he once wrote....
"There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness."
-Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)
From A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.
“I know you’re still young, but I want you to understand and learn this now…. Marriage can wait, education cannot. You’re a very, very bright girl. Truly, you are. You can be anything you want, Laila…. I know that when this war is over, Afghanistan is going to need you as much as its men, maybe even more. Because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated, Laila. No chance.”
~ Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns (Chapter 16)
Treasure
by Georgia Douglas Johnson
What matters though love's dream shall pass,
Since from the throbbing hour-glass
One golden-throated moment prest
Its attared incense to my breast.
Since I have known the purple gleam
That lifts above me—can I deem
The way unlighted—when I go
Encircled by love's afterglow?
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