ABOUT
THE BOOK

2020 Longlist

When a cargo ship carrying Mahindan and five hundred refugees from Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war reaches Vancouver’s shores, the young father thinks he and his six-year-old son can finally start a new life. Instead, the group is thrown into a detention processing center, with government officials and news headlines speculating that among the “boat people” are members of a separatist militant organization responsible for countless suicide attacks and that these terrorists now pose a threat to Canada’s national security. As the refugees become subject to heavy interrogation, Mahindan begins to fear that a desperate act taken in Sri Lanka to fund their escape may now jeopardize his and his son’s chance for asylum.

About the Author

Sharon Bala was born in Dubai and lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland. The Boat People is her first novel and has won the 2019 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, was a finalist for Canada Reads 2018, the 2018 Amazon Canada First Novel Award, the 2019 Margaret and John Savage First Book Award, and the 2019 Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, and was longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize.

Librarian’s Comments

Timely and compassionate work about the experience of refugees and the countries that receive them. A Canda Reads 2018 and NLReads 2018 finalist. Newfoundland and Labrador Public Libraries, Canada