Vendor
	Liepman Literary Agency Marc Koralnik
Original language
English

THE BOAT PEOPLE

Sharon Bala

For readers of Khaled Hosseini and Chris Cleave, THE BOAT PEOPLE is an extraordinary novel about a group of refugees who survive a perilous ocean voyage only to face the threat of deportation amid accusations of terrorism.

When a rusty cargo ship carrying Mahindan and 500 fellow refugees from Sri Lanka's bloody civil war reaches safe Canadian shores, the young father thinks he and his six-year-old son can finally start a new life. Instead the group is thrown into a prison, with government officials and news headlines speculating that among the "boat people" are members of a separatist militant organization responsible for countless suicide attacks--and that these terrorists now pose a threat to Canada's national security.

As the refugees become subject to heavy interrogation, Mahindan is haunted by the choices he made in Sri Lanka, acts of desperation that enabled his escape but now threaten his and his son's chance for asylum.

Inspired by real life events, this is a spellbinding and timely novel about identity and belonging; family secrets and loss; and the divisive rhetoric around immigration. Told through the alternating perspectives of Mahindan, his lawyer, and the adjudicator who must decide his fate, The Boat People offers a compassionate window into the current refugee crisis.

Sharon Bala's short fiction has won three Newfoundland and Labrador Arts & Letters Awards and been published, or is forthcoming, in: Grain, PRISM international, The New Quarterly, Room, Riddle Fence, and in a collection called Racket. Her debut novel, The Boat People, won the Percy Janes First Novel Award (May 2015) and was short listed for the Fresh Fish Award (October 2015). Visit her at: sharonbala.com

Available products
Book Published 2018-01-01 by McClelland & Stewart

Comments

Penguin Random House International (Doubleday)

"Debut author Bala capably establishes the interlocking narratives of three characters, each revealing a different, albeit compelling, perspective...by empathetically exploring each character's backstory, Bala presents the complex task of balancing a nation's desire to be compassionate with the need to identify threats to national security, providing a timely examination of the refugee crisis worldwide. Recommended for all fiction collections."

"The Boat People will-and should...-linger long in the mind as an almost Graham-Greene-esque thriller about Canada's Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora. Homeric in her narrative arc, Bala's novel is rhetorically purposive-but poetically, softly rhetorical...Bala is ahead by a century in the cricket score of politically powerful contemporary fiction."

"Bala displays her talent as a compassionate, reflective author...This is a work of fiction, but it's so very real...Ultimately, this is a novel comprised of both beautiful and uncomfortable truths, written by an author who understands there are multiple sides to every issue - and to every human being...Bala has vividly conjured worlds, both on Canadian soil and back in Sri Lanka, that show the dualities of living in any country...What we also get from a novel like this is a new way of seeing."

"The most striking aspect of the novel lies in its quietly confident understanding that everyone is complicit in systems of racial and ethnic violence...and Bala's assertion that no one is completely innocent intensifies her emotionally vivid prose."

Magazine 1843: Already on several bestseller lists in Canada, Bala's fiction has been praised for its timely appeal and its ability to capture this journey through the perspective of refugees.

"Timely and engrossing...This is a powerful debut."

"Cinematic details transport us to a tension-rich drama. Bala moves fluidly from past to present, mixing memories with current crises...juxtapositions build and maintain suspense all the way to the last line, where readers are left hanging, as if justice is in our hands...The Boat People reminds us of the fragile nature of truth."

Fawasel Publishing & Distrubution

"A real ship of refugees inspires a novel about the messy consequences of war...Memorable...Chilling..."

This earnest debut novel forcefully explores the issues surrounding immigration deeply moving and nuanced, The Boat People asks what price a country is willing to pay when public safety comes at the cost of human lives.

Mémoire d'encrier

"This earnest debut novel forcefully explores the issues surrounding immigration...deeply moving and nuanced, The Boat People asks what price a country is willing to pay when public safety comes at the cost of human lives."

"This timely novel follows the intersection of three lives after a cargo ship arrives in Canada, carrying Tamil refugees fleeing war in Sri Lanka."

"A sharp examination of the global refugee crisis from both human and bureaucratic perspectives."

"Timely and engrossing ... This is a powerful debut."

"A perfect book for our times"

The most anticipated books of the first half of 2018 Read more...

The Boat People willand should...linger long in the mind as an almost Graham-Greene-esque thriller about Canada's Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora. Homeric in her narrative arc, Bala's novel is rhetorically purposivebut poetically, softly rhetorical...Bala is ahead by a century in the cricket score of politically powerful contemporary fiction.

Mevsimler

A real ship of refugees inspires a novel about the messy consequences of war Memorable Chilling