{
    "id": 335234,
    "slug": "boat-people",
    "nstc": null,
    "title": "Boat People",
    "subtitle": null,
    "collection_title": null,
    "collection_part_number": null,
    "annotation": null,
    "description": "<p><strong><em>Globe and Mail</em> bestseller,&nbsp;<em>The Boat People</em> is an extraordinary novel about a group of refugees who survive a perilous ocean voyage only to face the threat of deportation amid accusations of terrorism</strong> </p>\n<p>When a rusty cargo ship carrying Mahindan and five hundred fellow refugees from Sri Lanka's bloody civil war reaches Vancouver's shores, the young father thinks he and his six-year-old son can finally start a new life. Instead, the group is thrown into a detention processing center, with government officials and news headlines speculating that among the \"boat people\" are members of a separatist militant organization responsible for countless suicide attacks&mdash;and that these terrorists now pose a threat to Canada's national security. As the refugees become subject to heavy interrogation, Mahindan begins to fear that a desperate act taken in Sri Lanka to fund their escape may now jeopardize his and his son's chance for asylum.</p>\n<p>Told through the alternating perspectives of Mahindan; his lawyer, Priya, a second-generation Sri Lankan Canadian who reluctantly represents the refugees; and Grace, a third-generation Japanese Canadian adjudicator who must decide Mahindan's fate as evidence mounts against him, <em>The Boat People</em> is a spellbinding and timely novel that provokes a deeply compassionate lens through which to view the current refugee crisis.</p>",
    "additional_content": null,
    "bestseller_60": null,
    "imprint": null,
    "language_code": "eng",
    "original_language_code": null,
    "page_count": 352,
    "duration_seconds": null,
    "publication_date_first": "2018-12-04",
    "publication_date_latest": "2024-08-26",
    "cover_url": null,
    "editions": [
        {
            "isbn": "9780525432463",
            "product_form": "BC"
        }
    ],
    "ratings_count": 0,
    "read_count": 0,
    "review_count": 0,
    "favorite_count": 0,
    "reading_status_read_count": 0,
    "reading_status_reading_count": 0,
    "reading_status_want_to_read_count": 0,
    "rating_average": null,
    "ratings_distribution": {
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        "2": 0,
        "3": 0,
        "4": 0,
        "5": 0
    },
    "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:22:04+00:00",
    "updated_at": "2025-11-06T00:28:05+00:00",
    "publisher": {
        "id": 4108,
        "slug": "random-house-us",
        "name": "Random House US",
        "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:07:56+00:00",
        "updated_at": "2025-09-19T15:10:09+00:00"
    },
    "contributors": [
        {
            "id": 202330,
            "slug": "sharon-bala",
            "key_names": "Bala",
            "names_before_key": "Sharon",
            "prefix_to_key": null,
            "contributor_role": "A01",
            "readable_contributor_role": "Author"
        }
    ],
    "genres": [],
    "subjects": [
        {
            "scheme_identifier": "32",
            "scheme_version": null,
            "main_subject": false,
            "subject_code": "300",
            "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:22:04+00:00",
            "updated_at": "2025-09-19T13:22:04+00:00"
        }
    ],
    "tags": [],
    "campaigns": []
}