{
    "id": 395961,
    "slug": "what-strange-paradise",
    "nstc": null,
    "title": "What Strange Paradise",
    "subtitle": "A Novel",
    "collection_title": null,
    "collection_part_number": null,
    "annotation": null,
    "description": "<p><strong><strong>From the widely acclaimed, best-selling author of <em>American War</em>: a new novel&mdash;beautifully written, unrelentingly dramatic, and profoundly moving&mdash;that looks at the global refugee crisis through the eyes of a child.</strong><br />&nbsp;</strong><br />More bodies have washed up on the shores of a small island. Another overfilled, ill-equipped, dilapidated ship has sunk under the weight of its too many passengers: Syrians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Lebanese, Palestinians, all of them desperate to escape untenable lives back in their homelands. But miraculously, someone has survived the passage: nine-year-old Amir, a Syrian boy who is soon rescued by V&auml;nna. V&auml;nna is a teenage girl, who, despite being native to the island, experiences her own sense of homelessness in a place and among people she has come to disdain. And though V&auml;nna and Amir are complete strangers, though they don&rsquo;t speak a common language, V&auml;nna is determined to do whatever it takes to save the boy.<br />&nbsp;<br />In alternating chapters, we learn about Amir&rsquo;s life and how he came to be on the boat, and we follow him and the girl as they make their way toward safety. <em>What Strange Paradise</em> is the story of two children finding their way through a hostile world. But it is also a story of empathy and indifference, of hope and despair&mdash;and about the way each of those things can blind us to reality.<br />&nbsp;</p>",
    "imprint": null,
    "language_code": "eng",
    "original_language_code": null,
    "page_count": 256,
    "duration_seconds": null,
    "publication_date_first": "2021-07-20",
    "publication_date_latest": "2024-08-26",
    "cover_url": null,
    "editions": [
        {
            "isbn": "9781524712075",
            "product_form": "BC"
        },
        {
            "isbn": "9781984899248",
            "product_form": "BC"
        }
    ],
    "ratings_count": 0,
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    "rating_average": null,
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    "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:38:31+00:00",
    "updated_at": "2025-10-30T00:32:43+00:00",
    "publisher": {
        "id": 4193,
        "slug": "knopf",
        "name": "Knopf",
        "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:08:55+00:00",
        "updated_at": "2025-09-19T15:10:07+00:00"
    },
    "contributors": [
        {
            "id": 242782,
            "slug": "omar-el-akkad-2",
            "key_names": "Akkad",
            "names_before_key": "Omar",
            "prefix_to_key": "El",
            "contributor_role": "A01",
            "readable_contributor_role": "Author"
        }
    ],
    "genres": [],
    "subjects": [
        {
            "scheme_identifier": "32",
            "scheme_version": null,
            "main_subject": false,
            "subject_code": "300",
            "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:38:31+00:00",
            "updated_at": "2025-09-19T13:38:31+00:00"
        }
    ],
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}