Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones

Hand Me Down World

Lloyd Jones

A young woman makes the hazardous journey as an illegal immigrant from Africa to northern Europe. The story of her journey is told by the people she encounters on the way. The language used is very basic and unsentimental which suits the harshness of her situation and also her character. The construction of this novel is very unusual. The story made me contemplate how I would act in similar circumstances.

Extract
How long was she in the water? What is time under those circumstances? What is an hour? What is ten minutes? Time can be measured in other ways. By the cold. By fear. By the length of time it takes for flesh to turn numb and then to rot and come away from her bones. She began to doubt the words of the crew. Or else something had happened. That was more believable because whatever was supposed to happen rarely did.
Parallels
  • Lost Bodies by Francoise Gantheret
  • My Name is Salma by Fadia Faqir