Book review - Crossing the Farak River

Title: Crossing the Farak River
Author: Michelle Aung Thin
Genre: realistic fiction
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Rating:

Summary (provided by publisher): Fourteen-year-old Hasina is forced to flee everything she knows in this gripping account of the refugee crisis in Myanmar.
For Hasina and her younger brother Araf, the constant threat of Sit Tat, the Myanmar Army, is a way of life in Rakhine province—just uttering the name is enough to send chills down their spines. As Rohingyas, they know that when they hear the wop wop wop of their helicopters there is one thing to do—run, and don’t stop. So when soldiers invade their village one night, and Hasina awakes to her aunt's fearful voice, followed by smoke, and then a scream, run is what they do.
Hasina races deep into the Rakhine forest to hide with her cousin Ghadiya and Araf. When they emerge some days later, it is to a smouldering village. Their house is standing but where is the rest of her family? With so many Rohingyas driven out, Hasina must figure out who she can trust for help and summon the courage to fight for her family amid the escalating conflict that threatens her world and her identity.
Fast-paced and accessibly written, Hasina tackles an important topic frequently in the news but little explored in fiction. It is a poignant and thought-provoking introduction for young readers to the miliatry crackdown and ongoing persecution of Rohingya people, from the perspective of a brave and resilient protagonist.

My opinion: The conflict in Myanmar is one that Americans may be vaguely aware of but likely do not truly understand. Books like this one not only help us to understand the details of the conflict but also what life is like for the people directly affected. We are given a brief snapshot of normal life for the Rohingyas before the soldiers come and tear everything apart. The remainder of the book is the daily struggle to survive, the constant fear that the efforts they've put in won't be enough, the constant threat that the soldiers will return, and the gradual realization that there is no going back to life as it had been. The text doesn't really go into the role of social media on the persecution of the Rohingya, the element that I was actually aware of, choosing instead to humanize the conflict.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley