Harraga by Boualem Sansal review – a darkly humorous portrayal of migration

A compelling, and timely, account of ‘harragas’ – north African migrants who flee to Europe illegally – and the pain of those left behind

“Harraga” is the Arabic word for a north African migrant who flees to Europe illegally, seeking a better life, and it’s a word that reverberates through this harrowing yet darkly humorous novel by the Algerian author of An Unfinished Business. What causes someone to flee their home? What is it like to experience existence as a harraga? How can empathy be created between those who aren’t harragas and those who are?

This timely book, well translated from French by Frank Wynne and winner of an English PEN award, powerfully depicts the pain of both those who leave and those who remain. The narrator is 35-year-old Lamia, who has stayed in Algiers, but whose brother Sofiane has become a harraga: “Sofiane had gone the way of the harragas – the ‘path-burners’... This was how everyone referred to those who burned their bridges, who fled the country on makeshift rafts and destroyed their papers when caught.”

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