She Is Not Me is a book about the struggles of a family from Iran who fly to Sweden for their freedom. It’s the story of a girl who fights her way through life. She barely remembers life in Iran, all she remembers was the stress, torture and everything they gave up to come to Sweden. The girl protects everyone, she has to protect her mother, her father and most of all her little brother. However, while protecting everyone else she didn’t learn to protect herself.
She was very young when she moved to Sweden; she was different from this country and their people and there was not a moment she could forget that. She was being constantly reminded of who she was and where she came from. This young girl was forced emotionally to be better than everyone so she could achieve higher. She was told not to take her privileges for granted so she never did. Since day one she obeyed her father who had a dream, a vision of her being successful. She didn’t want to let him down. But on some days her father use to disappear and a monster always took over, this monster was up to no good and whenever he showed up all she and her mother resided is misery. After years of living in misery she sends her mother away. She was the one to make that decision because that was the role she played in her family. Years passed and she became better than everyone, like her father’s dream but she started losing herself, her identity, her goals and everything else.
This book is written from the third person point of view but instead of characters, the readers only receive anonymous proper nouns such as “Papa”, “Little brother”, “Mama” and “The Girl” etc. The main character’s name is never mentioned, but the minor characters have been given names. I think the sole reason for this is to maintain the universal fundamental concept because I am sure the writer wants us to know that this is not the only family who can suffer these sorts of situations. She suggests that everyone suffers therefore she inspires her readers to connect with the story.
This story deals with severe issues that any young immigrant is bound to face and as the journey of this girl is depicted through different ages we can see the development in her character. She was always lost, she did whatever she was told to do because that’s what she has always done. Later as a result of being torn apart between societies, she suffers from various mental illnesses such as self-harm, anorexia and severe mental breakdowns. Overall, this book is a direct representation of how things go wrong in the name of freedom and it’s a must-read, bearing in mind the migration crisis happening all around the world.
- Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop
