Eleven-year-old Samira wants to show her family and the world what she can do: she can learn to read English, she can contribute to her family’s earnings and she can learn to surf. Forced to flee their village in Burma, Samira, her father, mother and older brother are Rohingya refugees living in Cox’s Bazar. Rukhsanna Guidroz’s Samira Surfs tells Samira’s story as the family rebuilds their lives in Bangladesh.
Set in 2012, the middle-grade novel begins at Samira’s new home—a house “made of bamboo choppy by Baba’s bare hands”, a leaky roof and a single room for the family of four. Samira counts the meager possessions: a cricket bat, a notebook, a blanket. The story quickly moves to the eggs Samira sells to beach-goers and what her family can afford when Samira sells them all.
“A bucket of eggs, turns into bundles of taka, turns into pinches of salt, turns into mouthfuls of joy. I send out a wish to sell all my eggs. Come hungry to the beach, tourist!”
Through tightly-woven passages the reader learns of Samira’s situation: her fear of the water, the family’s decision to leave Burma for a better life, a conversation about Samira’s desire to go to school and her family’s refusal.
I glance at the floor as Baba continues. “If we could afford school, we’d send your brother because only boys can change a family’s fate.”
Samira is discouraged, but all the same determined to prove she too can make an impact on her family’s lives and soon her older brother Khaled begins to secretly teach her. She’s a quick study and an eager learner. She also meets a group of girls, who are surfers at the local surf club. Samira observes them surfing and then, decides she wants to join them, forcing herself to overcome a fear of water that she developed after her grandparents died while crossing into Bangladesh. Samira hears about a local competition and, with her friends, decides to enter as she dreams of the cash prize.
In her author’s note that closes the book, Guidroz writes that while Samira’s story is fictional, Samira’s journey is “an everyday reality for refugees”. Guidroz takes care in describing Samira’s journey and her reflections on leaving her home. There is a quiet maturity to Samira’s voice.
“I’ve learned that belonging, having a home, having a country, means everything, is everything.”
The short chapters also create a similar effect, helping with the novel’s pace and momentum, but also in leaving a space for all that Samira finds difficult to say.
While the novel is firmly from Samira’s perspective, there are moments, too, when Guidroz takes the reader outside of the family, asking questions of society as a whole. When Samira’s mother recalls the decision they made to leave Burma, she asks her daughter:
“I wonder,” she says, “did enough people around the world see the news reports? Do they know we’re being attacked?”
And when there is conflict between the family and resident Bangladeshis in Cox’s Bazar, Samira’s father says:
“But we have to eat, just like them. What can we do?”
He starts to raise his voice and flecks of spit land on his lips. “There is no difference,” he continues, “we are all men with families to feed, we are all men in God’s eyes.”
Baba sighs and, in a low voice, he mutters to himself. All he’s trying to do is make a life for us here. But really Baba is waiting to go home. We all are.”
Guidroz, who previously worked in Hong Kong as a producer for RTHK 3 and now lives in Hawaii, provides readers with much to think about, but it always feels like a natural part of the story. Illustrations by Fahmida Azim help paint a picture of Samira, her life and the pull of the surf. Samira is a character to cheer for—spirited, kind and determined, her story of friendship and empowerment lingers long after the tide comes in.
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