In 2009, a boat arrives in Canadian waters. On board, are 500 passengers, Tamils fleeing war and persecution in Sri Lanka. Among these passengers is Mahindan, a car mechanic, and his six-year-old son, Sellian. They have come seeking refugee status but their hope for a safe refuge will not be easy. They soon find themselves facing a long and arduous fight to stay. The passengers are placed in detention camps and separated by gender. Children are placed with the women so Sellian is first placed with one of the women whom he hardly knows and is later placed in foster care with a Canadian couple who are well-meaning and kind but who know little of the Tamil culture and nothing of the language.

Mahinder's story is divided between his detention as he faces seemingly endless tribunals on his status and flashbacks to the horrors of life in Sri Lanka. Interwoven into the present timeline are two other major characters:

Priya - a second-generation Tamil Canadian and articling law student who wishes to enter corporate law but finds herself pressed into immigration law helping to represent several of the Tamils. Although, at first unhappy about this, she finds herself more and more in sympathy with the refugees and angry at the government's insistence on keeping many of the Tamils confined with the argument that terrorists may be trying to slip into the country under the guise of asylum-seekers. Priya's parents had told her little of their life in Sri Lanka and had chosen not to have her learn Tamil so that she can more easily assimilate into Canadian culture

Grace - a third generation Japanese-Canadian and one of the adjudicators hearing the cases of many of the Tamils including Mahinder. Graces's mother, who is showing signs of Altzheimer's, is obsessed with obtaining reparations from the Canadian government for the property that was confiscated from the family during their internment during WWII and never returned. She has enlisted Grace's two teen-aged daughters in the fight. Grace is determined to remain objective as she listens to the Tamils' stories but, as the government lays out what they claim proves that many of these asylum seekers, including Mahinder, at the very least aided the rebel groups, she begins to wonder what she would have done in their place to protect her family.

The Boat People, the debut novel by author Sharon Bala, is a beautifully written story. It is based on a true event, the arrival in 2010 of a barely sea-worthy boat containing almost 500 Sri Lankan Tamils seeking asylum, an event that divided the nation and raised questions about racism in Canada - even before the boat reached land, then Prime Minister Stephen Harper began a narrative about the possibility of terrorists hidden among the group and the need for caution in dealing with these refugees in the name of security. In her novel, Bala moves the story away from the narrative of refugees as some nebulous and potentially dangerous unknown and makes the reader see them as individuals with backstories that explain why they have risked everything to make this dangerous trip, something that we rarely see examined in news stories and she asks the reader to, like Grace, ponder what they would do to protect their loved ones in the same situation.

Not surprisingly, The Boat People won several awards in Canada and was a finalist for Canada Reads. It is, at the risk of sounding hyperbolic, amazing even more so perhaps because it is a debut novel and because Bala takes what has become, unfortunately, a very controversial subject and moves it from the general and too often ideological and makes it personal - we get to know these people, especially Mahinder, what he was forced to do to survive, to build a safe and secure life for his son. The ending is ambiguous but, given the nature of the story, this is fitting. Of all the books that I have read this year, this one will stay with me the longest and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

3.5 stars. There are some risks involved in writing fiction based on real events. An author may take liberties for the sake of the story, but then the liberties can be distracting to the reader... The Boat People was mostly good with some distractions.

The Boat People is based on the real story of a boat arriving on the shores of British Columbia in 2010 with around 500 Sri Lankans seeking refugee status: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Sun_Sea_incident. Bala has built a novel around this event by focusing on a number of characters affected in different ways, including a single father refugee claimant - Mahindan -and his 6 year old son, a young articling student -Priya - recruited by a senior lawyer at her firm to assist in representing the claimants, and a newly appointed adjudicator -Grace - charged with deciding whether refugees are to remain in detention and whether their claims will be accepted. In each case, Bala gives the characters their own backstories - Mahindan tried to dodge recruitment by the Tamil Tigers as best he could, Priya is also of Sri Lankan background but knows little about the circumstances that brought her family to Canada many years earlier, and Grace is of Japanese Canadian background and her parents were interned during WWII.

The stories Bala builds for Mandihan and Priya are very rich, and they go a long way to showing the complexity of the circumstances under which people seek to leave a violent home country. People make difficult choices to survive, and the hosting countries then have to sift through their history and choices to decide whether they are in need of protection and whether they pose any threat. As The Boat People progressed, these characters’ stories became increasingly complex and nuanced. This is very much the strength in Bala’s novel.

I had a much harder time with Grace’s character. She was depicted as a hapless conservative political appointment who was ill equipped to perform her duties. She was also portrayed as under the influence of a boorish unethical Minister who was involved in her appointment. I found this aspect of the story heavy handed. It seemed like Bala had an underlying political message that was giving way to what could have been a much more interesting and subtle character and story line.

Still, there is a lot I liked about The Boat People, and I was certainly emotionally engaged with many parts of the story.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy. And thanks again to Angela and Diane for reading this one along with me, and for commiserating about the cold at the same time! -22 Celsius today makes for another good day of reading hibernation.

A sensitively written book of the challenges facing refugees, specifically from Sri Lanka, and their adjustments to life in Canada. Also the struggle of the officials/lawyers who ultimately determine who can stay. An excellent read.

I loved that this was based on a true story; in that way, it reminded me of Small Great Things. It took a tough, relevant topic in today's society and humanized it. The viewpoints were compelling and it helped make it relatable.