The Boat People: A Novel

Synopsis

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 Five Hundred Fellow Refugees From Sri Lanka's Bloody Civil War Reaches Vancouver's 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 Detention Processing Center, 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 Begins To Fear That A Desperate Act Taken In Sri Lanka To Fund Their Escape May Now Jeopardize His And His Son's Chance For Asylum. Told Through The Alternating Perspectives Of Mahindan; His Lawyer, Priya, A Second-generation Sri Lankan Canadian Who Reluctantly Represents The Refugees; And Grace, A Third-generation Japanese Canadian Adjudicator Who Must Decide Mahindan's Fate As Evidence Mounts Against Him, The Boat People Is A Spellbinding And Timely Novel That Provokes A Deeply Compassionate Lens Through Which To View The Current Refugee Crisis-- A Debut Novel About A Thirty-five-year-old Sri Lankan Refugee Who Has Survived The Harrowing Experiences Of Civil War, A Prison Camp, And A Perilous Ocean Voyage To Canada -- But His Journey Has Only Begun, As He And His Young Son Navigate The Morass Of The Refugee System-- Sharon Bala.