My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC!

The Silence of the Choir is a devastating read, the story of refugees not just in Italy but all over Europe, risking their lives for a safer one only to be met with hatred upon arrival. Set in a tiny town in Sicily, we hear from all manner of people as a new cohort of ‘ragazzi’ arrive in Altino. Aided by a charitable organisation, the ragazzi are refugees from all over Africa who are desperately seeking a better life for themselves. While some of the townspeople are welcoming of the migrants, others are hostile. 

The cacophony of narrative voices works perfectly for this novel, and Sarr successfully paints a multidimensional portrait of the refugee crisis in Europe. The voices of the xenophobes and fascists are hard to swallow, but necessary. Anti-migrant rhetoric is on the rise everywhere, and we need books like this to face it head on. I loved that some of the migrants refused to be grateful to the charity workers - although given their fates I’m not sure that was the intention. But migrants often are refused the right to feel anything but grateful to be in Europe, even when they’re met with everything from red tape to outright violence.

I wasn’t fully convinced by one character’s motivations for his hatred towards the migrants. I know men in love can be emotionally volatile, but I just wasn’t convinced.

The tension throughout the book is built up really well, and that ending was devastating.

I’ll definitely be picking up Sarr’s other books in future!

Translated by Alison Anderson.