The journalist and writer Omar El Akkad discusses his new novel, What Strange Paradise (McClelland & Stewart, 2021), with Joseph Planta.

What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad (McClelland & Stewart, 2021). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: What Strange Paradise

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Omar El Akkad joins me again. The journalist and writer has recently published a new novel, What Strange Paradise. I read it over the summer and found it moving and such an important book for our time. With tens of millions of people forcibly displaced throughout the world today, it’s often easy to look away or not realise how many lives are in peril. And it’s startling too that a lot of those refugees are children. What Strange Paradise presents such vivid characters amidst unnamed and familiar settings. There’s a ship that has sunk because it carries too many passengers of so many different backgrounds: Ethiopians, Syrians, Egyptians, Lebanese, Palestinians. There’s even a sort of class system on board, usually having to do with race, or how much one was able to pay. Bodies are washing up on the shores of an island. It’s not explicitly named, but it’s all too familiar. They’re the images we’ve seen in the media, on the news; images we see of children. Yet, in Mr. El Akkad’s book, we see the crisis through the eyes of children. There’s a nine-year old Syrian boy who has seemingly survived, not gotten caught by officials, but a teenage girl named Vanna, a native of the island. Both do what it takes to elude those trying to find them. It’s often harrowing, and they don’t speak the same language, yet they connect. It’s a beautiful book too. Omar El Akkad’s work as a journalist has taken him to Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, and other places in the world. He received a Canadian National Newspaper Award for investigative journalism, one of many accolades he’s received. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, Le Monde, Guernica, and the Globe and Mail. He was first on the program in 2017 when his debut novel American War was published. It went on to be listed as one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ, NPR, and Esquire. The BBC named it one of the 100 Novels that Shaped Our World. Visit www.omarelakkad.com for more information. This new book is published by McClelland & Stewart. We taped this interview in mid-July. Mr. El Akkad called in from his home in Portland, Oregon. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Omar El Akkad; Mr. El Akkad, good morning.

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