The story seems to follow the story of a mother who lost her daughter in a city they sought asylum in, and a young woman who left the same country as a child and now struggling with the feelings and memories triggered by a miscarriage.

The book touches themes of asylum and political persecution, multi-generational trauma, loss, loneliness, absent fathers, the role of mothers and motherhood in fractured and fracturing societies, etc.

While the book is clearly important and the fragments of stories within it are gentle and emotive, the form the author chose to write just didn't resonate with me. It wasn't always clear what character was speaking, and the storylines merged into one another without any delineation (creating confusion). I wasn't always sure what a sentence belonged to - is something one of the characters said or something they dreamt? which exact character was the one talking/thinking? what context this was said in (now, or a memory)?

I just found the book confusion. It made it very difficult to follow and read, and I found myself putting the book down every 5 pages, being distracted by random things.

While I understand its important, I struggle to recommend it to anyone but the avid fans of new forms of writing in books. If you enjoy the content more than the form, or form that is easier to digest, then this isn't for you. I just felt the book was way too much work.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Upon reading the blurb of this book, which described its interest in 'grief, migration, and motherhood', I was immediately eager to read it - in our current, increasingly bleak political times its themes felt more timely than ever. In the novel, set in an unnamed, war-stricken city, and largely centred the interconnected yet disparate stories of two women (one searching for her lost child, the other on the brink of motherhood), the plot flits around, dipping in and out of different points of view and locations and artfully echoing the sense of scattering and displacement that seems to lurk within its characters.

The first chapter felt, to me, by far the strongest, as Karam managed to knit together the dual stories of her main protagonists in a way which seemed effortless and yet filled with tension - here, the blend between the external events and the internalised, stream-of-consciousness thoughts was both subtle and deliberate. That being said, as my star rating will attest, as the book went on, I felt the narrative style (fragmentary, detached, lyrical) began to overwhelm and overshadow the text itself - although I am sure this was the author's intention, it became increasingly difficult to follow, and I found myself struggling to connect with the characters as a result. The latter third of the book, which became more fragmentary still (made up of short, paragraph-length fragments) felt more interested in style than substance; there would clearly be an interesting story here, if it had been allowed to be told at length (instead, disappointingly, it followed an increasingly popular trend of having more white space than actual words on the page...).

Thank you to NetGalley and Fitzcarraldo for this ARC ebook - there was still a lot to admire in this book, and I would be interested to read Karam's future works!

Published 17 January 2024. This is an almost haunting novel with no joy but with phrases that move you. It is the story of two women and is told from the female perspective. One is a pregnant young woman on a business trip who witnesses the second woman in our story through herself into the sea. The woman who killed herself is a refugee who is, with her mother and her children, living a tent at the bottom of an alley between buildings that are riddled with bullet holes. Her eldest daughter has gone missing. We are never told the circumstances, we only see the mother's search, we only hear the words of her children as they play in the alley with the rubble, we only feel her despair. Our first woman returns to her home only to be told that her child has died inside her and she refuses to be induced. Inher narrative we switch between past and present as she remembers her own families arrival as refugees into the country and the racism that they had to endure, as she remembers her friend who dies in the war. As i said phrases that move you. I found it difficult at times as the narrative is fragmented as we are taken from past to present to future and sometimes i had to stop and think - whose story is this. But maybe that is the point, maybe the author is trying to show how refugees become faceless and anonymous. An emotional read and one that could make it onto the International Booker list.

The intense second novel from Balsam Karam, a children’s librarian, and Swedish writer of Kurdish ancestry. Atmospheric and elegiac, this is less conventional narrative than a series of snapshots centred on immense loss, displacement, and generational trauma. Karam's main characters are two women who are divided yet ultimately irreparably connected. One is a pregnant woman on a business trip, she’s travelled from Europe to a distant seaside resort. The nameless resort hosts wealthy, mostly-white, tourists who spend their time in its newly-built luxury hotels and upmarket restaurants close to the corniche, a winding road separating land from sea. As the visitor walks near the shore, she witnesses a woman throw herself into the water. This dying woman is a refugee, a mother who, together with her children and own mother, has been living in a makeshift tent, in a rubble-strewn, bullet-marked alley. A futile search for her missing oldest daughter has led to total despair. It’s not clear what’s happened to this teenage girl. Was she captured by the predatory men who haunt the local streets? Or did she attend a demonstration and fall foul of local authorities? Meanwhile, once again at home in Sweden, the businesswoman refuses to allow her now-dead child to be induced, convinced refusal can somehow break a wider cycle of grief and disappearance.

Karam’s narrative is plotless, rhythmic, and repetitive, sometimes literally, sometimes metaphorically. Images surface and resurface, as with the slowly-fading children abandoned in the alley, whose overlapping voices act like a chorus or song of mourning. As the setting moves to Sweden, Karam uses slashes / to distinguish between immediate reality and memory, as the Swedish woman drifts between her present in a hospital ward and visions of her childhood friend Rozia who died in war. The style changes again, as she begins to recall her family’s arrival in Sweden as political refugees in search of asylum: their struggles with racism, and attempts to adjust to a culture that refuses to meet them halfway. Karam is partly drawing on her own history here - the woman’s mother bears scars from torture that closely resemble those of Karam’s activist father; and the trauma of stillbirth echoes Karam’s own. Karam binds her fragmented episodes by invoking the idea of a black hole in which absence of gravity forces bodies together, removing the spaces in-between. Somewhere between fiction and prose poetry, I found this incredibly compelling, affecting and deeply felt. Translated by Saskia Vogel.

With many thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy. A fascinating experimental short novel that maintains a consistent narrative tension. Highly recommended!

Balsam Karam's upcoming book The Singularity will be published by Fitzcarraldo Editions, a reputable publisher of high-caliber books. This book, whose release date is set for January 2024, has already generated interest.

The story takes place in an unknown city filled with refugees and centers on a woman who is devotedly searching for her missing child. The distinctive emphasis on the female perspective in this novel, which provides insight into their difficulties and experiences, makes it stand out. The plot gains a fascinating layer from the setting's uncertainty in terms of time and place. The distinction between the past, present, and future is muddled by the battles shown, which are uncannily reminiscent of our own day.

After that was established, I struggled to understand the narrative's structure, identify the narrator, and follow the characters. The plot seemed obscure and mysterious; perhaps it was too sophisticated for me. It is clear that this book has many levels, and a subsequent reading can reveal new depths.

This was a really profound read that will probably stick with me for a while. Beautifully written with a solemn tone, definitely don't recommend this one if you're going through a tough time!

The Singularity is an upcoming novel by Balsam Karam and published by Fitzcarraldo Editions, publishers known for quality literature. Scheduled to be released in January 2024, this book has already garnered anticipation.

The narrative unfolds in an unnamed city amidst refugees, focusing on a mother in relentless pursuit of her lost child. What sets this story apart is its unique focus on the female perspective, offering insight into their challenges and experiences. The ambiguity of the time and place setting add an intriguing layer to the plot. The struggles depicted are eerily reflective of our contemporary era, blurring the lines between past, present, and future.

With that being set, I found myself grappling with the narrative's flow, struggling to discern the narrator and track the characters. The story seemed elusive and enigmatic, maybe it was too smart for me. It's evident that this book possesses multiple layers, and an another reread might unveil different dimensions.

Although this wasn't one of my personal favorites for this year, I acknowledge its potential to be nominated for the Booker International Longlist for 2024. Balsam Karam is an author I would definitely read more from.

I loved the intentions and politicised stance of this work but somehow the writing felt too lax and slightly disconnected to have the visceral effect that I expected. I also felt the shifting voices worked against the intensity of the piece as there were too many resting places for me as a reader and I wanted to feel the tension racheting up without the opportunity for escape.

This is still a powerful book that humanises the refugee/migrant situation in a way that is being increasingly diluted by our venal Tory government - I'd like to see this book in many hands even if it wasn't quite the impactful piece of writing that I expected. 3.5 stars rounded up.

Wow, that was heartbreaking. One review of this novel says it was like drinking teardrops. I disagree, it was more like injecting teardrops and drinking teardrops all the while bathing in teardrops.

If you fancy having your heart broken into pieces, then here's how......