“More than five years on, Syria’s civil war has seen cycle after cycle of tragedy and senseless killing, and no matter how ‘shocking’ or ‘viral’ the images to emerge from the bloodshed, it has hardly made a difference. But we have an obligation to keep telling the story, even if most of the time it feels as if no one is listening.” This is a quote from a report on CNN’s website. It is only one of the many stories on Syria that plays on a ticker tape in a corner of my mind for a few seconds before the next breaking news sensation catches my attention and sends this one to some place where it can be safely forgotten till the next time ‘Something Syria’ pops up on the screen again.
Syria is only one of the many conflict zones in the world, in the limelight right now because of the fallout of a war that has seen a refugee crisis balloon in the western world. But when it comes to refugee camps, the world’s largest is the Dadaab in Kenya. In a video clip, a young Somalian refugee speaks about her life growing up in the camp acknowledging that she is not of her country, and certainly not of the country that offered her refuge; they don’t really want her there. Welcome to nowhere, indeed.
I’m glad for the obligation and necessity to “keep telling the story”, and for the works of fiction that it is bringing about. After all we recall stories in books better than we care to remember the ones that flash across our screens evoking sympathy so ephemeral that we have to wonder if we are dying, if not dead already.
Welcome to Nowhere by acclaimed children’s writer Elizabeth Laird starts off running and doesn’t stop for breath till the very end. It tells the story of 12-year-old Omar (though it spans two-and-a-half years and Omar is a very old 14-year-old by the end), his parents and four siblings, all of who are caught in the crossfire as civil war rages over Syria. Almost from page one, there is a sense of ghastly adventure and impending doom. Laird references real-life events — even a cursory knowledge of the timeline of the civil war will put you in the context right away. You know that the events of 2011 unfolded when teenage boys full of idealism, fired by dreams of a revolution sparked by the Arab Spring, wrote a slogan on a wall, demanding that the regime change. They were captured and tortured, setting off protests and demonstrations that culminated in a harrowing war.
As Omar’s family flees, first from Bosra, then Daraa, and finally Syria itself, the infernal conditions outside are reflected in the situations inside. Tensions run high as Omar’s older brother Musa, who suffers from cerebral palsy, insists on doing his bit for the revolution. No one knows about his activities except the terrified Omar, but the chance that he could be found out keeps you on the edge of your seat, especially when you know that Baba, the father and patriarch, is firmly on the side of the government and damns all rebels as “terrorists”; he also insists on trying to get 16-year-old Eman, Omar’s oldest sister, married in the middle of all the crises, never bothering that the girl dreams of becoming a teacher; meanwhile their mother is embroiled in family squabbles with the grandmother and also trying to run the household with whatever is available in the shops, even as she bravely stands by her older daughter while struggling to cope with the youngest of her five children.
“It’s surprising how quickly you can get used to things. Demonstrations, marches, shootings and funerals — they all started to feel like a normal part of life,” Omar muses. Blood on the pavements is normal, friends and relatives shot to death is also normal. Then, as if this were not terrible enough, the war begins in earnest. Tanks, sniper attacks and shootings from helicopters turn to bombings where entire buildings collapse in front of their eyes. At one point, Omar thinks it all reminiscent of a computer game and as a reader you wonder at how such scary and traumatic scenarios are somehow normalised by the entertainment industry, almost like they are preparing you for the worst and teaching you to have fun with it.
Laird gives you great characters, heartwarming moments and even occasional humour, but this is a book about war and its consequences, and while there are no graphic descriptions, children, especially those younger than 12 might find the situations disturbing and stressful. It would be ideal if a parent/teacher could read it aloud to them.
Welcome to Nowhere; Elizabeth Laird, Macmillan Children’s Books, Rs. 350.
Revathi Suresh is the author of Jobless Clueless Reckless , a novel about teenagers.
