Cover Image: The Mediterranean Wall

The Mediterranean Wall

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Member Reviews

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

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This book entered my to-read queue when I was looking for serious almost-non-fiction picks. It sat on my virtual shelf for quite a while before I got to it. I have read a few others which were written on this topic, but many of the central figures who were refugees were men. It was an interesting choice by the author to focus on three women from different religions and situations.
I learnt more from this book than from other shorter works because it covered different countries, civil wars and needs for why someone would make this perilous journey. It is a tough book to get through. The situations are obviously drawn from real cases, and it is especially scary given the helplessness that they all find themselves in. The ending was surprising given the tone of the entire book. It did have some interesting angles as well.
It was slow going not only because of the content and its harshness but the amount of information that was required to be processed. Although having three protagonists introduced at varying stages of the narrative added depth, it also felt like it was dragging a little. I liked the back and forth because it gave me breathing time to process what was happening to one person when we went back to the past of another. They ultimately end up on the same boat, literally and figuratively.
I just felt like it could have been shorter. The author's writing and the translator's work were good enough to convey the gravity of the situation in a few scenes, but the rest felt repetitive. I would still recommend this over some other stories of people falling in the hands of smugglers because it provides an extensive picture of all the horrors.
It is the kind of book that you sit in silence after and think about everything that we just encountered.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is based on my own reading experience.

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Suspense over the fate of three refugees who risk all to escape despair in three different countries - Nigeria, Eritrea and Syria - keeps readers biting our nails. Their different religions - Jewish, Christian and Muslim- and their relationships with family and friends personalizes each woman’s unique story, yet they join forces to survive the hell that brutal coyotes and smugglers put them through after the women pay to be transported to Europe. The nightmare aboard a rickety boat battered by wind and waves causes hundreds of refugees to perish in the Mediterranean Sea - all told masterfully in vivid language by Haitian author, Louis-Philippe Dalembert, and sensitive Dutch translator Marjolijn de Jager. An unforgettable novel. I’m left feeling motivated to welcome and assist the refugees who survive such trauma.

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The past weekend the Italian coastguard rescued 539 migrants from a fishing boat drifting off the island of Lampedusa. This isn’t an unusual occurrence. Italy receives the majority of refugees and asylum seekers fleeing from Africa via Libya. It is estimated that 192,000 people have sought asylum in Italy since 2017 and it currently hosts an estimated 491,000 undocumented migrants.

Louis-Phillipe Dalembert’s haunting tale is based on the real-life rescue of hundreds of refugees by the captain of a Danish cargo ship in 2014. Through the harrowing journey of three young women the reader is brought face to face with the challenges, obstacles and circumstances refugees have been enduring for years – possibly even more so due to the current situation in Afghanistan – and will keep on enduring unless drastic action is taken by governments and human rights organisations.

Full review: https://westwordsreviews.wordpress.com/2021/08/31/the-mediterranean-wall-louis-philippe-dalembert/

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Good intention to describe the emigration/refuge of three women from different countries on their way to Lampedusa (and their life before that lead to it), but sadly not only badly written linguistically (which may be due to the translation from French), but also regarding the content which is dragging after the first story. The end is rather short in comparison. Could have been written much better.

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“You are the ones who have no rights at all. Get that into your qird heads: none at all. You belong to us. If you insist on going where no one is waiting for you, you’ll do what we tell you to do. Period”

A harrowing story that reads like a reportage of pain and desperation. Three women from different walks of life, of three different confessions and from different countries, united by the same desperation that leads them to escape from climate disaster, violence and war. After very difficult journeys they all converge to Lybia and embark on a hellish crossing where many will die and which is inspired by terrible events reported in many newspapers (referenced at the end). Each tells her story, which feels more like a chronicle. The language is crystal clear and calls things by their own name in a restrained, solemn tone which is devoid of rhetorical flourishes. The focus is on the harsh realities that caused them to flee and the lawlessness and arbitrariness of the Lybian camps. These are de facto a hellish modern day enslavement system that gives the reader more than a punch in the stomach: the narrator wants us to take everything in and bear witness but his gaze is not voyeuristic and does not linger on gruesome details. Yet there are uplifting moments as we stay with these womens’ trampled humanity and learn of their hopes, fears and dreams.

An eye-opening novel designed to make you indignant, it does not hesitate to point the finger toward the indifference of international institutions. While it manages to fulfil its purpose, it is a pity that it drags in some parts, especially as in the women’s accounts of their past. Still an important achievement.

My thanks to Pushkin Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. via Netgalley.

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In 2014 a trawler with 700 refugees sinking off the coast of Lampedusa was rescued by the Danish oil tanker Torm Lotte. Dalembert brings the odyssean journey to life in this book through three women - Semhar who is escaping conscription in Eritrea, Shomshana fleeing the north of Nigeria where climate change has turned lands barren, and Dima who is leaving Aleppo in the midst of the civil war. ⁣

Unfortunately I really struggled with the writing. I’m unsure if it was written poorly in French or if it’s just clumsy translation, but this may be the worst written book I’ve ever read ranging from subpar secondary school essay to comically bad to almost incomprehensible. Another point of irritation was that it was a book clearly written about women by a man, guilty of certain one-dimensional portrayals (flirtatious, playful women, self-absorbed, materialistic women) and uncomfortably gratuitous descriptions of rape. ⁣

I finished this book because these are important stories and the book - despite everything - conveys the magnitude of refugees’ hardship with a potency that non-fiction, journalistic writing is often unable to match. ⁣

#TheMediterraneanWall #LouisPhillipeDalembert #NetGalley

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As someone who works with refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants, I found this book really insightful. I liked how it was in third person so the reader is slightly removed from how harrowing the journey can be. The formatting of the book was also great.

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