We Are All That's Left

YA fiction 

     Carrie Arcos' We Are All That's Left is most of the most complex, nuanced, bold books that touch on the experiences of refugees from war torn countries.  In 1995 Arcos joined Americorps.  Her job was to help resettle Bosnian refugees in the Boston area.  They became her friends who made her feel like family.  This intimacy allowed her to describe incidents that many in the YA set aren't anywhere near ready to handle.  For more mature YA and adult readers this narrative is highly engaging and thought provoking.  It can help combat the images of refugees (free loaders, terrorists, drug smugglers) put out by white nationalists and their allies.

     "'Soldiers!  Down the street!'  He was out of breath.  'Coming up here.  Everyone in the bedroom.  Quick!'  He led them to Benjamin's bedroom, which was the farthest from the front door, and shut and locked them inside.  Terror throbbed in Nadja's heart and brain as she huddled against her parents against the back wall, afraid to even breathe."

     In the 1990s the war in Bosnia killed many civilians and cost others their homes, jobs, communities--basically everything.  Nadia is only a teenager when her father and little brother are taken by soldiers from her small town.  She is the only one in her family who is able to get smuggled to Sarajevo.  She's taken in by a family.

     Her new life is a struggle.  She desperately misses her family.  Food and wood for warmth and cooking are very scarce.  Electricity is usually off.  The sounds of shelling and sniper fire are constant.  Setting foot outside to run a necessary errand could easily result in death.

     "A couple of weeks ago, I told my mother I wished she could be more like Rebecca.  I wanted to hurt her, but Mom only started at me and walked away.  Sometimes her indifference is worse than the anger."

     Zara is Nadja's daughter.  She feels like she has no real relationship with her mother.  She hates the way Nadja is critical and dismissive of the photography that is her total passion.  She resents the complicated rules she has to live by.  And she is frustrated by her mother's refusal to discuss her earlier life.  

     One day Zara and her little brother, Benny, are at a farmers market.  Suddenly a bomb goes off.  Zara is badly wounded by shrapnel.  Her mother is left in a coma.  Now she may never get to know the woman who brought her into the world.

     In alternating chapters Arcos brings 1990s Bosnia and present day Rhode Island to life.  Her narrative is engaging, compelling, and thought provoking--perfect for the reader who can handle the horrors of war, racism, and terrorism.

Jules Hathaway 

     

Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone