Nishant Batsha

TW/CW: Ethnic violence, refugees, political violence, emotional abuse, murder, sex

RATING: 3.5/5

REVIEW: Mother Ocean Father Nation is the story of an Indian family who live on a small island in the South Pacific. They are faced with political unrest that turns into ethnic violence against Indians. In one family, the daughter is forced to flee to America while the son stays behind. This book is the story of those two decisions and how their lives differ.

This was not a bad book, in fact, I really enjoyed reading it. It just…could have been better. It felt to me like it was lacking something, and I can’t really put words to what that thing was, other than to say that it left me feeling rather blah when I finished the book. Maybe the book needed a little more heart? It had a lot of detail about the horrible things happening but in places, especially towards the beginning – it read more like a newspaper than a book about real, living, human beings.

Still, I did like this book. It’s not like anything I’ve read recently and tackles some very important topics, such as ethnic violence, racism, homophobia, misogyny, etc. It just wasn’t…as complete as it could have been.… (meer)