Welcome to paradise

The Strait of Gibraltar, the ten-mile-wide waterway separating Europe and Africa, is where, at night, immigrant traffickers pit themselves against two sets of coast guards. The passengers include people such as Kacem, an escapee from the civil war in Algeria; Nuara, with her unborn child, whose husband hasn't been in touch for months since moving to France; and Aziz, the young narrator, and his cousin Reda, severed, in different ways, from their families in southernmost Morocco. They all share a longing to escape, a readiness to risk everything, and the only person who can help them is Morad, an ex-con from French prison who holds court at a back table in Cafe France in Tangier. Tense, dramatic, and bleakly compassionate, Welcome to Paradise is a fictional glimpse into the difficulties facing asylum seekers and a striking portrait of human desperation.