FALLING SEVEN TIMES

Wentling’s novel offers an intimate depiction of the migrant crisis that sheds light on hidden suffering.

In 2003, Alya Tsehay Adal,an Ethiopian woman, leaves her home country, her grandmother, and her daughter to find work abroad: “Her survival and the lives of her child and family depended on the money she would send them from working in another country. For her, it was a matter of life or death.” Determined to support her family, she navigates a shadowy bureaucracy before finally landing a job as a domestic worker for a wealthy family in Dubai. Her life there is precarious as she struggles to balance her child care and cleaning duties. After the family fires her for falling ill, Alya perseveres and finds work with others in the city. Her position is still far from secure; she must leave more than one job to avoid sexual advances from male family members. Even when she finds better employers, they’re not always welcome in the United Arab Emirates, since they themselves are religious and ethnic minorities. After barely surviving a mysterious illness, Alya takes even riskier chances and gets caught up in the pitiless world of human trafficking. After a lonely stint as a maid in Iraq, her desperation increases, and she risks her life once again. Throughout, Wentling paints a thorough and horrifying portrait of people caught up in a brutal system, illuminating the complex trials and humiliating experiences that migrant workers endure. The straightforward depictions of Alya’s relationships with her employers underscore how the latter treat workers as disposable human beings. Detailed portraits of Ethiopian and Emirati life and customs provide informative context. Against this vivid background, Alya herself sometimes seems more like an underdeveloped cipher than a full-fledged protagonist. Still, the overall picture of a growing crisis is damning in its texture and detail.

A searing narrative that starkly reveals the full tragedy of the refugee crisis.