Safe Return Doubtful

This is an outstanding achievement of writing by Madeleine Thien, one that challenges the reader though attention is richly rewarded, a wonderful piece of story-telling.
It’s an adventurous piece of work also, defying categorisation into genre.

In a haven for those displaced from their homelands called the Sea, a girl cares for her ailing father and is supported by fellow refugees from across the centuries. Time fluctuates. 17th century philosopher Baruch Spinoza, political philosopher Hannah Arendt on the run from Nazi occupied Germany, and Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu, are the protagonists of the three volumes in The Great Lives of Voyagers series Lina’s father managed to take as they fled from China. It is these stories that alternate and occupy the significant part of the book.

In the first half of the novel it is difficult to see what links Lina, her father, and these characters, and the narrative has a degree of the surreal about it. In the second part the link becomes clearer.
Though this is an intellectual piece there are plenty of passages in it that contain riveting scenes of flight and terror, perhaps most of all, Arendt’s gruelling journey out of Germany which could well have made for a novel in itself.

This book is the highlight of Thien’s literary career to date, and surely a candidate for the Booker Longlist later this summer. I listened to the audio version, which takes a necessary 14 hours. I’m not sure I could have slowed my reading pace as much as that to get the equivalent from this exceptional book.

My GoodReads score 5 / 5