What Strange Paradise (Paperback)

'Deserves to be an instant classic. I haven't loved a book this much in a long time . . . What Strange Paradise . . . reads as a parable for our times . . . Such beautiful writing . . . This is an extraordinary book.' - New York Times 

'Riveting . . . Nothing I've read before has given me such a visceral sense of the grisly predicament confronted by millions of people expelled from their homes by conflict and climate change.' - Washington Post

'So gripping a page-turner that its brutal message feels organic . . . Through wisdom imparted by various characters, the reader receives new perspectives; the privileged Western reader in particular is confronted with him- or herself in an uncomfortable way.' - Toronto Globe and Mail

'Hope and despair, past and present, possibility and unlikelihood, kindheartedness and cruelty - they all fill the pages of this book with an exploration of all the sides of humanity.' - NPR

'Impassioned and richly detailed, What Strange Paradise moves like a thriller and punches like a work of art. With this haunting story of refugees, high seas, sharks and Samaritans, Omar El Akkad continues on his impressive exploration of our contemporary world.' - Aravind Adiga, author of The White Tiger and Amnesty

'Resuscitated my heart. This novel - following a boy who survives a refugee passage, and a girl whose homeland feels fractured - dares to unite us on the shore of shared human experience, and redefines hope in the face of despair.'  - Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Chronology of Water

'It is one thing to put a human face on a migrant crisis and another to do so in so compelling a way that a reader simply cannot put your book down. I read this in one sitting, my heart pounding the whole way - in a strange paradise, you might say. Marvelous.' - Gish Jen, author of The Resistors

'What an imaginative, touching, and necessary novel Omar El Akkad has brought to us. It reminds us of the human stories behind headlines and statistics, and gives us one of the most memorable children characters, whose story adds urgency and poignancy to that "awfully big adventure" stated by Peter Pan.' - Yiyun Li, author of Where Reasons End

'Tremendously written . . . Omar El Akkad writes with such emotional precision, power, and grace . . . The book devastates and uplifts, somehow, and we are not left with hope - that isn't the point - but asked to witness, to see what is here, with clarity, and with fullness of heart.' - Tommy Orange, author of There, There