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Q:
Since you wrote your book, has anything changed? Would you add, or take away anything from In Many Waters?
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A:
The biggest change is that we are now facing a global refugee crisis and it is on everyone’s radar. Right now, the spotlight is on Syrian refugees, but there are also current emergencies in Libya, the Central African Republic, Iraq, and South Sudan, for example. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) works in over 125 countries around the world in some of the most volatile and challenging places on the globe. Though the people come from different parts of the world, there is much commonality in their needs: food, water, shelter, a safe haven, and resettlement in a new home with all that entails. It’s our global priority now.
As far as changing my novel, I would not do so. We have news outlets to keep up with what changes day-to-day, but a good novel hopefully does not have a shelf life or expiry date. Though the book is dark, there are rays of hope. I would not dilute the depths of the dark, or the glimmer of the light in our many waters. -
Q:
You touch on some huge themes in your writing: home, family, culture, religion, water and betrayal. What would you like your reader to take away from this book?
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A:
My own favourite novels are both intimate and vast. They are about particular characters whose voices, experiences and destinies burrow into the mind and heart of the reader, but also open out into broader, more universal themes. That’s my hope for In Many Waters. The takeaway: No one is a stranger.
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Q:
Why did you decide to write from American, Canadian, Maltese, and Libyan refugee points of view?
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A:
We live in a global world where we are all our neighbors’ keepers. My novel centres on three orphans, as well as a mysterious character whose origins are unknown, but are excavated during the story. Though the struggles of each of my characters have some commonality, there are also contrasts in what they face and grapple with in order to find out who they are and where they belong. I wanted to provide the rich texture of this multicultural, multiethnic world through the varied voices of each of my characters.
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Q:
Why did you write this particular story?
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A:
Back in 2005, I was fortunate to have a writing fellowship at The St. James Cavalier Centre for Creativity in Valletta, Malta. I absorbed the culture, history, and crisis facing this beautiful and troubled island. Though the refugee situation was not on the radar here at home, it was very much a crisis in Malta, where thousands of desperate, displaced people from the horn of Africa flooded the tiny island, the closest point of entry to the European Union. Because of overcrowding, many displaced people were imprisoned in Detention Centres. I learned about the complexities of the crisis. I talked to refugees and to volunteers from the Jesuit Refugee Service who were working to help them. I chatted with Maltese people to understand their point-of-view. I read many testimonials of North African refugees who had been imprisoned in Detention Centres—for years—on their way to seeking asylum.
In addition, while living in Malta, a Catholic island, most famous for the Knights of St. John, I discovered a fascinating and secret Jewish history and minority on the island, behind and beneath the more dominant history. In fact, during the reign of The Knights of St. John (1530-1798), the only Jews (with few exceptions) were slaves in Malta. A prison to hold these Jewish slaves had been built in Valletta. Throughout the reign of the Knights, the islands were the last European refuge of slave traffic and slave labour. The plight of the Jewish slaves on Malta echoed the refugees’ current plight.
These interconnected threads knit together: marginal characters, forced from their homes, displaced from family and identity, seeking refuge and sanctuary elsewhere. People who had lost or been cut off from their blood family, forming and choosing new families of their own making. The seeds of In Many Waters were sown. -
Q:
As a fiction writer, in Canada, how do you think that you can contribute to the current international refugee crisis?
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A:
I’m a believer that literature can help to heal the world. A powerful novel is a gateway to opening a readers’ horizons. It’s vital to understand and empathize with the human stories. That’s my goal as a novelist.
We’re all familiar with the headlines: Violence has forced over 60 million people from their homes. According to the UN, the number of refugees and displaced people has reached the highest point since World War II. Here in Canada, I’m so proud of the fact that we’re in the process of resettling more than 30,000 Syrian refugees. (We are doing much more on behalf of refugees than the U.S.) But numbers are numbing and war reporting tends to capture images of the often nameless dead and injured, and the devastation of buildings.
In Many Waters takes readers deep inside the journey of one refugee, a young girl who is the only survivor on a flimsy, overcrowded fishing boat, who is rescued from drowning in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. My novel is in some ways a reflection of what is happening in the world, in close-up. I hope to open readers’ hearts and minds, to both transport them to a place they’ve never been and to help them see what is happening right now in a new, immediate light.