On Fragile Waves

On Fragile Waves is a novel by the American writer E. Lily Yu, published in 2020. It follows one family's migration from a country at war towards a country they have been told is peaceful.

Firuzeh and her brother Nour are the children at the centre of it, and their parents, whom the novel calls Atay and Abay, decide to leave Afghanistan. Before they go they tell the children about Australia, the place they are heading for, and the stories they tell are fairy tales of what might be waiting there.

The family moves from Pakistan to Indonesia to Nauru, and the journey is made through shelters that are not meant to last, through strangers who are sometimes mercenary and sometimes kind, and through friendships that end when people are moved on again.

When they finally reach Australia, the shore that looked stable turns out to have its own currents, and the book follows the family as they find out what the country they were promised is actually like. The whole of it is told from the children's side of the journey.