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A Hope More Powerful than the Sea

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A Hope More Powerful than the Sea
AuthorMelissa Fleming
GenreNon-fiction
PublisherFleet
Publication date
2017

A Hope More Powerful than the Sea is a book by Melissa Fleming about Syrian refugee Doaa Al Zamel's experiences leading up to and during the 2014 Malta migrant shipwreck.

Production

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A Hope More Powerful than the Sea was published by Fleet in 2017.[1] It was written by Melissa Fleming, the chief spokesperson for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.[2]

Synopsis

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The book starts with Doaa Al Zamel's early life, growing up in Daraa, Syria.[3] Al Zamel has a happy childhood, living in the extended family home, until the Syrian civil war breaks out.[4] Her family flee to Egypt where she gets engaged to Bassam.[1] In Egypt, Bassam and Al Zamel pay people smugglers to move them to Europe, boarding a boat with 500 other refugees.[1][5] The boat capsizes in the Mediterranean Sea, with all but eleven of the passengers drowning. Bassam does not make it, Al Zamel is one of the eleven.[1]

Critical reception

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Jenny Sawyer writing in The Christian Science Monitor credit's Fleming's ability to tell the personal story and frame it in the wider refugee crisis, but also notes the lack of Al Zamel's own voice, the story only ever being told by the third party narrator.[4]

Hannah Solel writing in the Financial Times called the book gripping and moving.[1]

Screen adaption

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Steven Spielberg bought the rights to the book, but production stopped after the producers received media backlash in 2018 for commissioning white American writer and actor Lena Dunham for penning the script, who has previously been accused of being a hipster racist.[6] Flemming, along with other Syrian rights activists, accused Spielberg and co-producer JJ Abrams of whitewashing for hiring Dunham to write the screenplay.[7][8]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Solel, Hannah (2017-01-20). "A Hope More Powerful than the Sea by Melissa Fleming — on the refugee crisis". Financial Times. Retrieved 2022-08-21.
  2. ^ "'I had a feeling of death before me': A refugee's survival story of 4 days floating at sea". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 31 March 2017.
  3. ^ Stewart, Debbie (12 July 2017). "The Syrian refugee crisis through Doaa Zamel's experiences". Great Falls Tribune.
  4. ^ a b Sawyer, Jenny (2017-02-06). "'A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea' is the stunning tale of a Syrian refugee". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved 2022-08-21.
  5. ^ Walter, Natasha (2017-01-22). "A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea by Melissa Fleming – review". the Guardian. Retrieved 2022-08-21.
  6. ^ Nordyke, Kimberly. "Lenny Letter Writer Accuses Lena Dunham of "Hipster Racism," Exits Publication". Hollywood Reporter. Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  7. ^ Pulver, Andrew (2018-10-30). "Backlash over Lena Dunham script for Syrian refugee film". the Guardian. Retrieved 2022-08-21.
  8. ^ Chisholm, Kate. "Acts of settlement | The Spectator". www.spectator.co.uk. Retrieved 2022-08-21.
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