Zana Fraillon – The Argle Bargle

Publisher: Hachette Children’s Group

Publish Date: July 14th 2016

Genre: Literary Fiction, YA

Rating: 5 stars

“Subhi is a refugee. Born in an Australian permanent detention center after his mother and sister fled the violence of a distant homeland, Subhi has only ever known life behind the fences. But his world is far bigger than that—every night, the magical Night Sea from his mother’s stories brings him gifts, the faraway whales sing to him, and the birds tell their stories. And as he grows, his imagination threatens to burst beyond the limits of his containment.

The most vivid story of all, however, is the one that arrives one night in the form of Jimmie—a scruffy, impatient girl who appears on the other side of the wire fence and brings with her a notebook written by the mother she lost. Unable to read it herself, she relies on Subhi to unravel her family’s love songs and tragedies.

Subhi and Jimmie might both find comfort—and maybe even freedom—as their tales unfold. But not until each has been braver than ever before.”

(I received a digital copy of this book in return for an honest review)

Whilst I don’t normally go for the more serious book, Fraillon’s ‘The Bone Sparrow’ just caught my eye. And now that I’ve finished it, I’m so glad it did because I’ve never had a reading experience like it. Fraillon just has this way with words that made her tale captivating, beautiful and absolutely heart-breaking. Each delicate line held more than enough punch to secure me, and probably many other readers, as firm fans of her writing.

The most important thing about this book is how well it opens your eyes to the harsh and often overlooked truths about refugees and detention centers. Whilst this was a fictional story, a lot of it was based on painful realities that all in all made this a hard-hitting realization about the events that are still taking place around us. The fact that ‘The Bone Sparrows’ message was so strong made it so much more memorable – I don’t think its message will be leaving me for awhile.

The characters all felt so real to me too. By the end of the book I found myself so entwined with our narrator Subhi that I couldn’t find myself thinking outside of his own mind for awhile. Fraillon managed to keep his narration so true to his character and situation – never making slip-ups (such as mentioning his appearance as he’d never had the opportunity to see it) meaning that it was close to impossible to not feel like you understood him. I also loved how, despite our first person narrator, Fraillon still managed to give extra information on characters other than Subhi when they weren’t together. To begin with, I found the chapter-long switch from first person to third person slightly jarring but, after a few times, I didn’t notice it and became thankful for it. Somehow Fraillon has managed to overcome the whole ‘unreliable first-person narrator’ problem with a way that worked so seamlessly you had to be grateful for it.

I normally finish my reviews with the things that could have been improved with a book but with ‘The Bone Sparrow’ there is absolutely nothing I can say. This was a true masterpiece from start to finish, it’s impossible to find yourself disliking it, even just a little bit. In between these pages, I daresay Fraillon has achieved perfection.