An intertwinned story of longing for bigger worlds and finding comfort and escape through travel, Assimilation by Sophie Buchaillard is a novel of our times, with complex unforgettable women characters.
We are daily overwhelmed by information about migration, many of them superficial negative evaluation warning about the risks and dangers of the phenomenon. But what really means to be part of this process, what implications do have migration for someone life, and what are the reasons for it?
In a modern empathic key, Assimilation is gathering in the virtual realm of the book, characters faced for different reasons with the desire to run away from their past, to start anew. Marianne a mother whose daughter Charlotte left France for Wales. Marianne is hiding terrible secretsfrom her old times while trying to comform to the norms of the French middle class. And there is Wilson, a young Nigerian man who dreams about embarking on an academic career in the USA but ends up being trapped in France, the victim of an unfair immigration system.
Assimilation gathers multiple stories, coming together on the canvas of modern world. It breaths the wind of change but realistically portrays the traps of a perfect world that may be made possible by the openness of travel and free flow of people. Thoughts very well reflected by the very inspired cover.
The women characters do play an important role in giving the pace to the story. Absent from the daily narrative on such topics, the novel has also the merit of offering them a voice and a place within the narrative.
Assimilation is an important contribution to women literature in English, and inspires us to think about the roots of our identity and its many influences in a world on the move.
Rating: 5 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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