Zoom event examines the immigrant experience

Above: E. Lily Yu has written her first novel "On Fragile Waves." (Photo: Clarkesworld Magazine)

It would be difficult for most of us to imagine being an immigrant. I can’t fathom what it would be like to leave the only home you’ve known and try to start over in a new country, having to adjust to a new culture to learn a new language.

And that’s just the minimum. You’d also have to negotiate a way to make a living, find a place to live and hope that you weren’t going to, for some reason, be sent back to your native country — especially if that home country offered you nothing but danger.

All of that is what faces the Daizangi family of E. Lily Yu’s debut novel “On Fragile Waves.” Fleeing Afghanistan, the family experiences a series of temporary shelters in pursuit of their final destination, Australia.

As Yu told 2020debuts.com, “As the family journeys from Pakistan to Indonesia to Nauru, heading toward a hope of home, they must rely on fragile and temporary shelters, strangers both mercenary and kind, and friends who vanish as quickly as they’re found.”

Calling “On Fragile Waves” a “unique, gorgeous book,” f(r)iction reviewer Carissa Villagomez wrote, “It’s devastating and heart-wrenching yet retains an overwhelming sense of beauty throughout with its use of experimental phrases and its impassioned love for storytelling.”

Yu’s short stories have been published in such periodicals as McSweeney’s, Tor.com and Boston Review, not to mention having been included in a number of anthologies and earning finalist honors for the Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards. You can access an interview with Yu in Clarkesworld Magazine by clicking here.

You’ll be able to discover even more about Yu and “On Fragile Waves” at 7 p.m. Wednesday when she joins Matt Bell, author of the forthcoming book “Appleseed,” in a Zoom event. Click here to register.

Then immerse yourself in the immigrant experience – and be thankful it’s only virtual.