“A hope more powerful than the sea” is a book written by Melissa Fleming, who works for the United Nations and deals with giving voice to people like the protagonist of this book.
It is the true story of a 19-year-old girl, Doaa Al Zamel. In Daraa, a city in Syria where the girl lives with her family, war breaks out. Initially Doaa, who immediately proves to be a stubborn and strong girl takes part in various demonstrations, when things get complicated and she starts to risk her life, the family asks her to stop, and so she does.
The war is brutal and between the danger that runs every day, the shortage of food Syria is now an uninhabitable place and Doaa’s family leaves for Egypt.
Here Syrian immigrants are welcomed beautifully, but when the government changes, they start to receive hatred and even to be threatened if they dare to send their children to school. In the difficulties of life in Egypt, Doaa meets Bassem, with whom she is engaged and intends to have a family. The two are young and Egypt has nothing to offer them but a very painful life. They decide to risk and embark on the journey to Europe. Using all the money they own they leave. The journey is very difficult and they can reach the sea only after being imprisoned several times. When they are now close to Italy, a ship approaches the boat on which the refugees are found and deliberately sink it. Many people drown, many die under the boat’s engine. The parents of two girls, seeing themselves now on the verge of death, entrust their daughters to Doaa. She, who had always hated water and could not swim, is now in the open sea, the life of two girls depends on her and that of all three on a life jacket.
The book is very intense, to read all in one breath. I find that the important part is not how much the book is “pleasant” (incidentally, it is very smooth), but I think it is important to consider the social aspects that make it up.
The story of Doaa is not only a true story, but it is the tragedy that many human beings live today.
I really appreciated the fact that the author after some chapters in which she tells the story of Doaa stops to give us some (incredible) data on the damage caused by the war in Syria.
The book is strong and forces the reader to deal with their conscience, we do not talk about fiction, we can not, as in a horror film tell ourselves that it is all fake, we must decide whether to start to notice the situations of countries like Syria or to look the other way.
We should keep this type of stories in mind when we believe that what goes on away from us is none of our business.
We should remember stories like that of Doaa even when we pour our hate on the immigrants present in our country, keeping in mind that being born in the West is nothing but simple luck, certainly not a merit, nothing that makes us better people than others.
Valeria Del Sordo 4N
