GOOD MORNING, HOPE

Twin sisters Argita and Detina were schoolchildren in Albania in the late 1990s before fleeing as refugees to the United Kingdom with their parents.

Told in brief chapters that alternate the narrative roles between Gita and Deti, the book provides a cohesive firsthand account of life in a country embroiled in life-threatening chaos and the circumstances that lead one family among thousands to leave. The family’s escape is ultimately successful, and they arrive in Folkestone, Kent, where the tweens encounter both the goodwill and the xenophobia of their new community as they wait to be granted asylum. Although the story alternates perspectives, the narrative voices are similar enough that readers might not notice the switch, but this does not greatly detract from the story. Readers will be fascinated as the twins recount and reflect on the stresses and daily terrors of becoming refugees, not to mention the constant anxiety of living with uncertainty around whether they would be allowed to stay in England, their father’s employment struggles, and their determination to attend medical school. The young women’s professional successes are recounted in an epilogue. Parents and educators will appreciate the direct messaging that manages to be age-appropriate without pulling any punches. While individual readers will benefit from the story, book clubs and classrooms where the chapters can be analyzed and discussed will find that it adds much of value.

A haunting reminder of how precious democracy is.