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Walk In My Shoes (2005)

by Alwyn Evans(Favorite Author)

3.71 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0143002317 (ISBN13: 9780143002314)

languge

English

genre

Young Adult Fiction

publisher

Penguin Global

review 1: Young adult novel about the experience of a (fictional, but based on real-life interviews) refugee girl from Afghanistan. It tracks a family's experience through people smuggling, detention camp and finally integration into the Australian community. By and large it succeeds in its aim to put a human face on refugees, but it suffers from being slightly too long and losing narrative traction in the latter half (although the romance aspect may keep younger readers motivated through that part - it lost me as being too simplistic at that point). Also, the ending has an abrupt 'twist' which isn't well resolved and results in a rather messy conclusion - it doesn't allow time for new issues raised to be explored. But overall very readable.
review 2: Living in Australia... more and being surrounded by the issue of "boat people", this book hits quite close to home. Anyone who thinks the government is acting in Australia's (or anyone's) best interest with its current policies should read this book. It made me ashamed even to think that my tax dollars are going towards camps like that. Criminals in prison are treated better.As for the story itself, it flowed quite well, the only problem being that it seemed to slow down in part 2 and the love story and lingering questions around that are the main thing that kept up momentum. So, a lot like many other stories, then.Overall, a good read and very enlightening. less

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