Book Riot has a first look at the full cover of On Fragile Waves, the debut novel from Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award nominee E. Lily Yu!
Published by Erewhon Books, On Fragile Waves follows one refugee family as they journey from Afghanistan to Australia.
“Eight and a half years after I started this mad project, and many libraries and countries later, I am delighted that my novel has found a home at Erewhon,” Yu said last November, when the book was announced. “It is the best thing I have written, to date, and I can imagine no better publisher for On Fragile Waves.”
Here’s the official synopsis:
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On Fragile Waves
Firuzeh and her brother Nour are children of war. Born in Afghanistan, they have seen fire fall from the sky for most of their lives. In the hope of escaping the endless cycle of violence, their parents—their Atay, Omid, and their Abay, Bahar—decide to leave the land of their ancestors in search of a better place.
Tragedy will strike more than once as the family undertakes its dangerous journey—first by land, then by sea—toward faraway Australia and has to learn that the kindness of strangers cannot always be relied on. Even when they are finally, reluctantly, admitted to the Promised Land, their travails are far from over, and Firuzeh in particular finds herself having to navigate the treacherous currents of a culture uncomprehending of her family’s.
On Fragile Waves threads the needle between contemporary and magical realist literature, centered around the important and timely subject matter of the plight of refugees and immigrants.
On Fragile Waves comes out December 8, 2020.
