‘The plight of refugees’
“In recent times, the image of thousands upon thousands of faces scattered alive and dead along the makeshift routes crossing into Europe, Britain, and the United States. It is easy to build a sympathetic distance from the anonymous crowds, who are often from nations without statehood, fleeing conflicts many Westerners are only vaguely aware of. At times, certain stories can break through the wall of complacency to instill humanitarian outrage. This happened in 2015, when the image of a drowned Syrian toddler, washed up on a Turkish beach after having escaped his country’s civil war, went globally viral. The individual tragedy of that photograph emphasized the human story at the centre of every refugee crisis. In Escape from Siberia, Escape from Memory, Paul Wojdak uncovers just such a story in his own family history.” Matthew Downey reviews Escape from Siberia, Escape from Memory: An Odyssey Across Two Oceans & Nine Countries to Arrive Home, by Paul Wojdak (Victoria: Friesen Press, 2024) $32.99 / 9781039196865