old world and new, faith and despair, hope and surrender...

this being the season of great(!) debates and demonstrations on the issue of immigration, here is a book recommendation. Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami looks at the issue from an immigrant's point of view. in fact, from the points of view of 4 entirely unrelated persons travelling by the same boat from Morocco to Spain - would-be illegal immigrants with their own motivations and with differing results. one also gets a good idea of life in North Africa (Morocco). the novel is very easy to read, making it very difficult to put it down! very rarely do i read a novel at home, unless i am about to compelete it. but this was different.

Laila Lalami also runs a very interesting blog (www.moorishgirl.com). the blog also includes a lot of her political views, but just the literary elements make it an interesting read.