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AUTHOR'S NOTE
Every language
has a sound. Try hearing a language you don’t have any clue about
and it has a sound. Some sound like music, others like stones
rattling in a steel container and some others like the buzzing of
bees.
When I first
moved to Denmark, that’s how Danish sounded to me, like the buzzing
of bees. In Scandinavia, Danish is the hardest language to learn
because it’s the hardest language to understand. People speak as if
they have a hot potato in their mouth. They randomly shorten words
and make four words into one sound. Now that I understand some
Danish, the buzzing has lessened, but it’s still there when people
speak too quickly or they’re speaking with a heavy Northern Jylland
accent.
The Sound of
Language
is my first book set in Denmark and is the story of an Afghan
refugee Raihana, who has recently come to Denmark, just a few months
before 9/11. But this is not a 9/11 novel.
In Denmark,
refugees get monetary support from the government and in return,
they are obligated to take Danish classes and participate in what is
called praktik. They have to work 20 hours a week in some
place where the use Danish at the workplace. This is done so that
they get integrated into Danish society quickly and efficiently.
Usually refugees
cluster together and speak in their native language as they clean
supermarkets or do other jobs of the same nature for their
praktik. But Raihana finds a praktik with a beekeeper,
Gunnar.
Recently
widowed, Gunnar is an unhappy man. He and his wife had loved their
bees and now Gunnar ignores them, uncaring that they’ll die if he
doesn’t pay them attention. He’s resistant to have Raihana work for
him at first, but slowly she worms his way into his life and helps
resurrects his love for bees and life. Gunnar in return makes
Raihana leave her past behind and embrace her future.
This is not
a love story. I had thought it would be but it didn’t work out that
way. This is a story about a unique friendship between two people
who cannot communicate clearly with each other because they don’t
speak the same language. This is a story about immigrant life in
Denmark. And most importantly, this is a story of courage and of
stepping beyond the confines laid down by society and culture and
finding something precious and important – happiness.
There is so much
fiction out there about the Taliban and the people who suffered
under them, I just wanted to see what happened to an Afghan who
escaped and came to a Western country as a refugee. This was a
wonderful journey for me and I hope that you’ll enjoy reading this
book as much as I enjoyed writing it. |
