The Return by Dulce Maria Cardoso

The Return

Dulce Maria Cardoso

This young adult's view of a Civil War and its consequences to everything he has ever known is an interesting read. Whatever your personal political feelings about this subject matter, no one can escape the hardship endured by those fleeing their homes with nothing but the bags they're holding and the clothes on their backs. Touching, innocent, incredibly down-to-earth and extremely relevant to the current plight of the Syrian refugees crisis.

Extract
The staff don't want us here and they don't like serving us. They think the blacks kicked us out of there because we exploited them, we lost everything, it was all our fault and we don't deserve to be here in a five-star hotel being waited on the way we were back there. The staff prefer serving the blacks that can't even hold their cutlery properly to serving us, they think the blacks are victims who endured five centuries of oppression and now have had to flee the war. Just let the staff keep feeding those blacks like we did, let them keep serving those blacks and one day they'll see, the blacks rise up in revolt and they do to them what they did to us, they'll bang on their doors and take them away with hands tied behind their backs, they'll take them away and I'll laugh.
Parallels
  • Death of Dignity: Angola's Civil War by Victoria Brittain
  • Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan