This is a must read for everyone, and yeah, again, I know, those who should read it, never will. (Which makes it a good present :))

I like everything about this book. The writing is plain art and leaves me wondering how the authors brain, or say, process works to produce such beauty. It’s filigree, sophisticated with fine lines, big words, scenes I drowned in.

As for the content, I love the protagonists, possibly because I can relate with one so much, but possibly also because all of them are sharply painted, without dominance, excess or power. Just beautifully.

About that elephant in the room: the plot is the bomb. I wish we’d live in a world drawn up by the author for… let me calculate… the next 5000 years? Maybe that’d readjust humanity and we could start afresh.

Mareike Fallwickl: you are a hero. I adore your style, I adore your message, I look up to you.

ps: I’m not part of the Amazon referral program. No money is made from my reviews.

Piece of art. I love everything about it. The protagonists are crisp, the writing style changes whenever focus on an individual changes. The writing is so much on point, it’s difficult to grasp how so much poetry could be weaved into it.

The story in itself is an exceptional recount of (at least in my very own experience eastern) families in a western world, where all they have is a sliver of a dream of making enough money to survive and return to their beloved places one day. (Lest not forget about those who know they’ll never return, for whom the pain of living in an unwelcoming, unsupporting and often purely hostile environment is going to be their life forever.)

I look up to you Fatma Aydemir. You are amazing.

ps: I’m not part of the Amazon referral program. No money is made from my reviews.

Clearly the author didn’t think this through and forfaited everything this book could have been in favor of shipping something in tune with the zeitgeist for a quick buck quickly.

If you wonder: the story told would basically end after the first phone call, since surveillance is in effect already at this point, as is explained in the final couple of pages.

don’t read. waste of time.

Worthwhile book to read for everyone in the childrens education realm. Wonderful example of diversity power.

Absolute piece of art. Absolutely worth reading. I’ve read it in french, and can’t fathom it being anywhere near as good in any translation, but ymmv.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Voyage_d%27Hector_ou_la_Recherche_du_bonheur

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsieur_Ibrahim_et_les_Fleurs_du_Coran

https://www.zytglogge.ch/monika-dettwiler-berner-lauffeuer-978-3-7296-0560-2

und: ignore me, soll kein rant sein, nur personal-book-diary

must read. Challenging writing style, fascinating thoughts, extremely relevant. Interestingly it’s truly philosophical, in as far as that “data” is pulled from literature, less so from science (doesn’t make it worse, it’s just an interesting observation). Could probably be cut to 1/3, but the expansive thinking I as a reader was able to observe was impressive.