On the afternoon of April 24, I raced out to my nearest Chapters and picked up Lawrence Hill’s The Illegal. You all should too, and here’s why.
Every year, CBC provides a literary version of the reality show Survivor called Canada Reads. In this battle of the books, five Canadian celebrities, ranging from political activists to athletes, each advocate for a novel in a four-day debate. Every representative argues why their book best depicts that year’s theme, and every day, a book is voted off until one remains and is crowned the book that all of Canada should read.
2016’s theme was starting over. From Thursday, March 21 until the 24, four books were eliminated, starting with Michael Winter’s Minister Without Portfolio defended by Adam Copeland, Saleema Nawaz’s Bone and Bread defended by Farah Mohamed, Tracey Lindberg’s Birdie defended by Bruce Poon Tip, Anita Rau Badami’s The Hero’s Walk defended by Vinay Virmani, and Lawrence Hill’s The Illegal defended by Clara Hughes — the eventual winner.
Lawrence Hill, who also won Canada Reads in 2009 for The Book of Negros, wrote The Illegal which takes place in the futuristic world of Zantoroland — a poor, fictionalized country that is distraught by tyranny. Keita Ali, a runner, must flee his homeland after his father, a journalist, is killed for his unpopular political views. Keita is forced to seek refuge in the wealthy Freedom State — a place where he is unwelcome, unwanted and considered an illegal. He is undocumented in a nation that hunts undocumented people, and as a result, Keita is forced to hide, living underground and only earning cash in the form of prize money from running races when he dares to resurface. The novel explores the courageous efforts of Keita, and addresses what it means to be a refugee and what it means to start over.
The debates got heated when Poon Tip exploited The Hero’s Walk, which chronicles an elderly man living in India who must look after his Canadian grandchild after his daughter passes away, for its Indian (not Canadian) setting: “This isn’t India Reads.” Mohamed took offense to this comment, accusing him of trying to elevate one community while putting another community down, and asking Poon Tip to apologize to Anita Rau Badami. The other panelists dismissed Poon Tip’s comment by reinforcing the fact that all of the books are written by Canadian authors.
The Illegal also doesn’t take place in Canada, but instead of focussing on this element, panelists critiqued the fantasy aspect of the novel. Poon Tip went so far as comparing it to a Harry Potter book, and saying “there’s so many good stories of actual refugees, why make one up?”
But Hughes held her own. She says the fantasy of the novel allows for imagination and provides an understanding of the devastating side of the human condition and the struggles of racism and xenophobia. “By going into that fantasy place,” explains Hughes, “you’re allowed to . . . enter into the humanity of millions of displaced people.”
She takes it a step further, comparing the futuristic setting of the novel to the potential reality of Donald Trump’s presidency. He’s “talking about deporting 10 or 11 million Mexican people — human beings that are called ‘illegals’ down in the United States.”
Hughes also compares Hill’s novel to dystopian societies presented in George Orwell’s 1984 and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale by discussing the importance of learning from refugees in order to prevent the future depicted in The Illegal.
In defense of The Hero’s Walk, Virmani indirectly defends The Illegal by saying that “Canada has started to resemble the map of the word; this is a country of immigrants.”
“It’s essential for Canadians to understand the challenges to immigrant communities, to new cultural adjustments, to new ways of life,” says Virmani. “That’s what Canada is all about.”
The cultural mosaic presented both in Hill and Rau Badmai’s novels ultimately outweighed the inefficiencies exploited by Poon Tin. And with its influential message, The Illegal deserves its win.
Hughes stresses the importance of The Illegal for its relevancy. With 25,000 Syrian refugees assembling new homes in Canada, she thinks everyone should read this book to learn about the immigrant experience. Mohamed agrees, saying The Illegal tackles “an issue that’s so topical.” With reference to refugee stories in newspapers and on TV, Mohamed says, “we have to tell those stories, they’re so important to who we are as a country.
“The Illegal shows us that starting over in a new land is never easy,” argues Hughes. Seeking refuge in a nation that doesn’t want you highlights the significance of humanity and acceptance.
“Empathy is so important,” Hughes says, “I do truly feel that it’s difficult, next to impossible, to understand what that plight is. And The Illegal helps us give an understanding — a voice to the voiceless, a face to the faceless.”
As a book that discusses an issue so prevalent in today’s society, and as the winner of Canada Reads 2016, you should all go pick up Hill’s The Illegal.
“Great writing, an amazing plot, a courageous mix of comedy and tragedy, and characters that leap off the page,” Hughes says. “The Illegal asks Canadians to imagine the humanity of one refugee and thus all refugees. It urges Canadians to think about our own relationship to refugees today and ask what kind of country we want to forge tomorrow.
