Summary
Murad has pondered what it will be like in Spain hundreds of times over the last year as he weighed the risks in making the crossing over the Strait of Gibraltar. He has many hopes and dreams. It is a calm night. Thirty people are crowded onto the inflatable Zodiac meant for eight. The coastline is closer with every breath Murad takes. They are heading to Tarifa, the mainland point of the Moorish invasion of 711.
Murad knows life will be hard there, but it will be worth it and he knows he can succeed even if others cannot. After all, he has a degree in English and speaks Spanish fluently.
Murad is sitting next to a young woman, Faten. She is wearing a headscarf, which he scoffs at inwardly, knowing she will stick out once in Spain. There is Aziz, who is trying to cross for the second time. Next to him is a middle-aged man with greasy hair whom Murad decides to name “Scarface.” Scarface looks at a little girl near him, which makes Halima, her mother, uncomfortable. Murad thinks Halima is foolish to risk her children’s lives on the crossing but admires the way she conducts herself. A Guinean woman sits next to Aziz. She throws up on Faten’s shoes and is immediately apologetic and embarrassed.
Murad thinks of the stories he has heard of illegals who were not so lucky, but his thoughts are interrupted with the sudden idling of the motor. Rahal, the captain, curses and fiddles with a cable. Faten starts crying and moaning that the trip is cursed. Aziz moves to figure out if he can fix it while Scarface growls at Faten to be quiet and Murad defends her. Aziz manages to tape a gap and they are on their way again.
Tarifa is about 250 meters away and the sea is still calm, but Murad knows not to trust the Mediterranean. To his shock, Rahal demands everyone get out of the boat and swim the rest of the distance. They are incredulous. Halima says they paid to be taken to the shore but Rahal does not care, and tells them he isn’t going to risk it. Someone stands up and the boat tips and they plunge into the water.
Murad is slammed by the cold. Despite his heavy clothes and discombobulation, he knows there is nothing he can do but swim, and he starts making his way to shore. He sees Aziz swimming; he looks like he will make it. Faten grabs onto Murad and he realizes she cannot swim, but she is pulling him down and keeping him in one place. He breaks away from her, knowing he will drown if she holds on and will freeze if he stays in place.
He makes it to shore but cannot see Faten. He does not have much time before the Guardia Civil is upon him, so he calls Rubio, the man who is supposed to pick him up and drive him to Catalonia. Rubio tells him to wait by the sugarcane. As Murad finally relaxes and starts to let his mind go to all the things he will do now that he is here, a flashlight shines on him.
Murad sits shivering with the other “illegals,” trying to think of how he could have made it to safety. At one point he takes off running but is caught again. Inside the building he sees a lot of illegals, many of them from other boats. There is no sign of Aziz, who must have made it, but he is relieved to see Faten.
A woman in a dark suit tells them all to sign a piece of paper when the guards come around. Murad gives a fake name but knows it doesn’t matter. On the way to the holding cell, he sees a body bag and vomits.
Inside the cell he thinks of how he failed and will have to go back to his mother and sister and to being a burden on them. Yet if Aziz could make it, he can, Murad thinks, and he must try again. If his mother will sell her gold bracelets, he will have the money and next time he will succeed.
Analysis
Laila Lalami is a Moroccan immigrant just like her characters in Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, but unlike them, she came from a wealthy family, chose to leave to pursue education, and immigrated through legal means. This did not mean she was not sympathetic to, and did not want to understand the motivations of, people who chose to leave Morocco for Spain through dangerous, illegal means with very slim chances of success in both the crossing and their (potentially) new home. She read news stories of these individuals, then turned to more extensive research and began writing her own novel.
In an interview with Three Monkeys, Lalami explained, “I wanted a title that would contain both the positive and negative aspects of the immigration experience. Although they come from different cities in Morocco and although they are leaving the country for different reasons, my characters all share a deep hope of a better tomorrow. What intrigued me was the idea that they were risking their very lives for the sake of a better life. A very dangerous gamble. So I wanted a title that had both hope and danger in it, which is how it came about.” This places Lalami in a contemporary tradition of Arab diasporic writers, Lisa Marchi notes: “contemporary Arab diasporic authors chronicle the turbulent experience of illegal migrants by elaborating narratives that are both entertaining and politically engaged. With deep humanity and fresh creativity, these writers develop powerful stories that free the migrant from the invisibility that keeps him/ her hostage and shed light on some of the crucial tensions—between for instance homeland and country of immigration, mobility and immobility, visibility and invisibility, locals and new comers, hosts and guests—that underpin migration.”
In the first section of the novel, “The Trip,” we get insight into the general reasons why crossing the Strait of Gibraltar into Spain—even in a terrifyingly unsafe boat on a potentially rough sea with the likelihood of being captured by Civil Guard and deported—is something Moroccans might want to undergo. Murad thinks, “He spent hours thinking of what he would do once he was on the other side, imagining the job, the car, the house… he wondered how fourteen kilometers could separate not just two countries but two universes” (1). As we will learn later, all four of the characters have things they are fleeing, things that are worth the crossing: Murad has no job opportunities; Aziz has no job opportunities; Halima is fleeing an abusive husband and wants a better life for her children; Faten is poor and in trouble for saying something critical about King Hassan.
Of course, while all of their stories are different, what undergirds all of them is that Morocco is not a place with equal economic opportunity for all. It is heavily stratified by class with little to no economic mobility. US News reports, “Despite Morocco's economic progress, high unemployment, poverty and illiteracy continue to plague the country. Morocco is also involved in territorial disputes, over both the Western Sahara and several islands under Spanish control. Human rights groups complain of ongoing restrictions on freedom of expression, association and assembly.” And Freedom House states, “Nearly all Moroccans are Muslims, and the king, identified as ‘commander of the faithful’ in the constitution, has ultimate authority over religious affairs. Imams are required to obtain state certification, and mosques are monitored by the authorities. The government operates a well-financed training program for imams and female religious counselors tasked with promoting a state-sanctioned version of ‘moderate Islam,’ which some critics charge is also intended to promote political quiescence.”
For the immigrants, Spain is close and it is full of promise. As Ilham Boutob writes, “The opening passage of the novel sheds light on how Spain, or Europe in general, stands as a sort of paradise or Eldorado that must be reached at all costs.” Though the horror stories of what might happen on the crossing and once in Spain percolate the consciousness of would-be immigrants, it’s clear that the risks are outweighed by the potential rewards.
