emzireads's review
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Medical trauma, Colonisation, Sexual violence, and Genocide
Moderate: Addiction, Eating disorder, and Suicide
dreesreads's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
5 narrators. 2 mothers. 2 daughters. The father.
This novel is about women’s traumas and how they affect the following generation(s). But daughters also have hidden traumas—mothers blame themselves for things that are actually not entirely their fault.
This novel is about women’s traumas and how they affect the following generation(s). But daughters also have hidden traumas—mothers blame themselves for things that are actually not entirely their fault.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Abortion, Murder, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Child abuse, and Rape
This book is about trauma and it gets all the content warnings.josiegz's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Beyond Babylon is a kaleidoscopic novel that tells the interwoven stories of Zuhra and Mar, two Black Italian half-sisters who meet by chance at a Classical Arabic language school in Tunisia, as well as the stories of their mothers and their elusive father. Scego's prose moves from present-day Italy to the years of Argentina's cruel and repressive Dirty War, as well as Siad Barre’s brutal dictatorship in Somalia.
This is not an easy read. There is a brutal description of a gang rape and episodes of child sex abuse. What makes the book really sing for me is the beauty of the writing. In Rome, "the clouds formed rabbits and larks out of the psychedelic air." In Mogadishu, young people "leave through Khartoum and Nairobi, they cross the Sahara and then those in Libya and Tunisia try their luck in broken-down boats that will take them towards the gateway to the sun." In Argentina, "we were a beautiful generation. That was a volatile time politically, but generative. People debated everything, from films to plays. The city was a riot of movie clubs, theaters, off-Broadway shows."
Beyond Babylon is meditative and dreamy, weaving together myriad voices of immigrants and exiles, with moments of happiness and beauty amid the struggles of the novel's protagonists.
This is not an easy read. There is a brutal description of a gang rape and episodes of child sex abuse. What makes the book really sing for me is the beauty of the writing. In Rome, "the clouds formed rabbits and larks out of the psychedelic air." In Mogadishu, young people "leave through Khartoum and Nairobi, they cross the Sahara and then those in Libya and Tunisia try their luck in broken-down boats that will take them towards the gateway to the sun." In Argentina, "we were a beautiful generation. That was a volatile time politically, but generative. People debated everything, from films to plays. The city was a riot of movie clubs, theaters, off-Broadway shows."
Beyond Babylon is meditative and dreamy, weaving together myriad voices of immigrants and exiles, with moments of happiness and beauty amid the struggles of the novel's protagonists.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Rape
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