Fear and the Unknown

Throughout the novel, the author uses Sami’s family’s journey from Syria to England to catalyze her explorations regarding fear and the unknown. At the start Chapter 1, when Sami learns that the Cham City Center Mall has been bombed in a rebel attack, he has trouble believing that the war has invaded his insular city. “Damascus is safe,” he tries to tell himself when he hears the news at school (7, Dassu’s italics). Although Sami is only in the eighth grade, his character is aware that “Most of Syria [has been] torn apart because of the war” (6). However, Sami has refused to let the war disrupt his life in Damascus. After the bomb attack on the mall, however, Sami’s life becomes defined by fear. The attack not only threatens his mother’s and sister’s lives, but makes his parents afraid...