A short but powerful book, examining the impact of the refugee crisis through the perspective of one couple. I found the first half of the novel extremely affecting, with its focus on the minutiae of living in a war zone and the logistics of leaving your home and family. As the book progresses, Hamid veers into speculative fiction; I didn't feel that this worked so well and felt frustrated that he had abandoned the powerfully evocative realism that he had employed so adeptly earlier on.
