3.5/5
A Beautiful Land by Susan Beth Miller is hard hitting emotional story that takes us on a journey through a war torn land in an unnamed region in East Africa torn apart by ethnic strife. Belonging to an ethnic group persecuted by a warring faction, siblings Jean de Dieu,Ritha ,Raissaand Hanni realize that they need to escape across the border to survive after their tribe is targeted with violence and execution in the hands of their oppressors .
Raissa , unwilling to leave her homeland and their family home which is filled with memories of her late parents decides to stay back only to take up work as domestic help ,disguised so as to protect herself from being identified, with the family who forcefully occupy their home . Her siblings who have reluctantly left her behind traverse the forests and marshlands , wandering through refugee camps and ultimately crossing the border . When Raissa faces possible discovery and peril she also decides to leave . She takes the young child of the family believing that that she should not leave him to be brought up by people who were hunting and murdering her people. Raissa creates a home for herself deep in the forest with her son whom she renames 'Dogood' out of hope that he will grow up to be a good person and do good deeds as opposed to those she views as evil, After years in the forest Raissa , fearing discovery and loss of her child also moves ahead on her journey ultimately reuniting with her family. Years later , they return to their own homeland , once again attempting to create a life for themselves on the very land they were once forced to flee.
This is not an easy or light read and some parts of the novel such as Raissa’s surviving years in the forest with a young child seemed a little hard to believe as would be Dogood’s mother’s discovery of her child and Raissa in the forest and then lack of any effort to claim him. The author does create a memorable cast of characters and weaves a beautiful story that takes us through decades in the lives of the siblings and Dogood. We get to know these characters not only through the challenges they face together but get to accompany them on their personal journeys of loss , trauma and survival and bear witness to how they evolve as strong individuals each fighting their own internal battles haunted by tragic memories while searching for a purpose to live and a place to call home. This is a story of family, love , war, sacrifice and homeland with vivid descriptions of nature and sensitive portrayal of relationships. I found Ritha’s journey particularly heart wrenching. The complicated relationship between Dogood and Raissa is poignantly portrayed .Touching upon themes of migration and displacement, generational trauma and man’s relationship with nature, A Beautiful Land is a moving and evocative novel.
“When the memories got too heavy and wanted to knock her down to the ground, she looked hard at them and said, I see you, I hear you, I remember each one of you. Then she put them in a little boat—like the basket for baby Moses she had learned about as a trusting child—and laid them down in a river, let them flow on past. This river circled round, so they would be back another day. And then, on that day as well, she would listen to them, look them in the eye, feel her heart breaking over their misery. Then one more time she would set them on the water.”

Thanks to NetGalley and Boyce & Dalton for the electronic review copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.





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