An Unsafe Haven
Written by Nada Awar Jarrar
Narrated by Nathalie Armin
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
'Captivating …There's a breadth of humanity in An Unsafe Haven which is very moving. I loved the sense of Lebanon and of what is unique and precious about the Arab world' Helen Dunmore
Hannah has deep roots in her hometown of Beirut, where she lives with her American husband, Peter. Just when they thought they had gotten used to the upheavals in Lebanon, the war in neighbouring Syria enters its fifth year, and the region’s increasingly fragile state throws their daily lives into chaos.
A chance meeting with a Syrian woman and her son in a busy street forces Hannah to face the worsening refugee crisis. As the couple work to reunite Fatima with her family, they must question the very future of their homeland.
And when their close friend Anas, an artist, arrives to open his exhibition, shocking news from his home in Damascus raises uncomfortable questions about his loyalty to his family and his country.
Nada Awar Jarrar
Nada Awar Jarrar was born in Lebanon to an Australian mother and a Lebanese father. She has lived in London, Paris, Sydney and Washington DC and is currently based in Beirut where she lives with her husband Bassem and their daughter Zeina. Her first novel, Somewhere, Home won the Commonwealth Best First Book award for Southeast Asia and the South Pacific in 2004.
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Reviews for An Unsafe Haven
4 ratings1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is trying to do something very brave, describe the refuge experience without necessarily making it seem to be a place of abject despair. There is hope and ambition in every situation, sometimes that is a small ambition, sometimes it is a dream to be fought for. The people in this book are almost all out of place in some way, the only resident of Beruit is Hannah, and she has also been displaced in her past. There is love, of partners, family, place and home. And there is conflict of all forms, war to domestic conflict features largely. I'm not certain it entirely succeeds as a work of ficiton, there is a series of events that feels a little too improbable, or is told too superficially to feel entirely likely. It is also a slightly odd group of people, there seems to be little that actually holds them together as friends - we don't really see every day behaviour, we see them all under some degree of stress - so the fact that they would do so much for each other seems slightly unconvicing. It is told from a number of different perspectives, each chapter following a different individual, and these separate viewpoints combine and wrap around each other to give an impression of the indivudal's past and their present situation.I also found the manner in which this is written to be difficult to navigate. There are no speech marls, all speech is indicated by a - at the beginning of the line, but the following paragraph can include internal tuought as well as external speech, meaning that it is not always easy to work out what has been said. It is a brave attempt to show the feeling is displacement extends to more than just the obvious refuges. It challenges attitudes to the displaced populations as well. Most of us come from somewhere else, it;s just a question of when we were last displaced.