Occupied

"Occupied follows the lives of four main characters; a refugee, native, settler and economic migrant, all of whom are affected by these divisions. At their core, each character is the same; they all face the same challenges, react in the same ways, and feel the same emotions. But their different labels and alternative backgrounds provide barriers which stop them from ever uniting.

It would be easy to focus on this theme, which runs through Occupied. But to do so would be to miss the artistry of the novel; the characters which often remind us of ourselves, the scenery which bursts into life, and the subplots which fill every page. Occupied is a story of individual hope against collective despair, and with that comes a certain sense of optimism; a determination to be the best you can. The four main characters have to battle against the trauma of forced marriages, displacement and physical abuse, but they become stronger as a result of experiencing such hardships."

"Occupied operates in an ethereal plane; real enough to make it feel relevant, yet mysterious enough to imbue it with warmth.The reader evolves with the four main characters as they travel through life; standing in their shoes and feeling their pain. For despite its darkness, Occupied is also full of light. The love between the characters is easily relatable to the love we often feel in own our lives, and the poetic descriptions buzz with energy and life. Occupied really is a unique work of dystopian fiction, and a must-read for any lover of radical literature."

"The way it was written meant that even if someone has no pre-existing knowledge of Palestine, the Kurdish question and Tibet, they would have still enjoyed it and still understood the reasoning behind the anti-colonial and anti-capitalist sentiments behind the book."

"Occupied is a candid and disquieting look at the idea of freedom and its limits around the world."