Asylum Road by Olivia Sudjic

 

Asylum Road is a street in Peckham, a district in South-Eastern London, where once an asylum was located. For the main character in the homonymous book by Olivia Sudjic, Anya, this is the last known address we are shared. A twenty-something, trying - not too hard - to work on her PhD, engaged to be married with Luke a young man from a conservative - pro-Brexit - family in Cornwall.

Anya survived as a child the siege of the city. A trauma that will follow her everywhere, reignited during her visit to Sarajevo where she tried to introduce Luke to her family. As they are about to ´take a break´ from their relationship shortly after, she is already desintegrating, psychologically tormented by her inner demons.

I´ve heard quite a lot about Sudjic´s books and I do have Sympathy, a book she wrote before this one, on my Kindle ready to read, continuing the literary journey with this author. However, I was not sure what to expect from her both in terms of topics and the style. I may say that I was really impressed about the well-tempered swim through the psychological waves of introspection, traumatic memories and imperceptible wounds the Anya, is going through.

At the same time, Sudjic avoids the temptation of just focusing on the psychological challenges of the character. She is developing the story on various directions, building the characters and the story with the same care for precision. 

In the last half century, there are so many traumatic events in the personal biographies of individuals from Latin America, Middle East, Balkans. The siege of Sarajevo lasted four years, enough for both a child and an adult to be marked for ever. Anya´s story can be the story of many more people we pass near on the streets. Those invisible wounds are staying for ever, for some easier to survive, for some there is an Asylum Road waiting for them.

What I felt that was missing from the book was a more extended background into the character, some more details that would have turn her trauma more knowledgeable. But maybe in the economy of the book, her role was exactly this: to say less and feel more. 

Rating: 3.5 stars