I avoided this book for a while because of the controversy around it, but I’m glad I finally picked it up. It’s long and stressful to read — the sense of menace and peril follows the reader for all 400-ish pages, but that also made it hard to put down. It does suffer from the same problem as all novels that serve an agenda — in this case, the desire to introduce the reader to characters representing a variety of different types of migrant stories — in that some of the plot elements seem contrived simply to introduce those characters before the main characters leave them behind. However, it’s a powerful story of loss, regret, and bravery, with the potential to help generate empathy and support for migrants everywhere.