Which character do you think displays the greatest emotional resilience, and why?

Which character do you think displays the greatest emotional resilience, and why?

Afra displayed surprising resilience with her blindness. She was still striving to create her art with colored pencils and notepads, by feeling the strokes of the pencils with her fingertips. This cannot have been easy, and instead of displaying frustration, she just kept on working to make her art.

Afra survives a terrorist attack that leaves her blind, she loses a child and then is forced from her home into refugee camps under deplorable conditions. She the survivor of this novel.

Afra shows the most resilience. She loses her child and her sight, flees from her homeland and endures hardships along the way while incapacitated and vulnerable. And yet, she is the one who saves Nuri in the end.

I also agree that Afra in the end was the more resilient one for the same reasons that the previous posts mentioned.

I think Nuri was the more resilient one. He also lost a child and then still pushed his feelings aside to make sure him and Afra would survive. I think Afra not being able to see shielded her from some of the things Nuri had to endure, such as killing a man.

I agree with the people who feel that Afra was the most resilient. It is interesting to follow her journey.

Afra. For most of the book, I was convinced Nuri was the resilient one, but by the end, I wondered how much of his story was in his head and looked at Afra in a new light.

Nuri. He went through so much with the loss of his son, his wife’s blindness, seeing the destruction of his home city and country and the difficult journey to England. He was very patient with Afra when she insisted on staying in Aleppo when they should have left earlier. He had to endure and arrange the whole journey away from Syria.

Afra-She is the emotional river flowing through this book. Though she loses her sight because of an unimaginable tragedy, she displays a quiet intuition about the people and places that surround her. She is Nuri's salvation.

Afra.. to be blind while living in the refugee camps and going to all of those unknown places was so brave. Even though she didn’t have to see some of the things Nuri did, I still think she was braver and more resilient for facing all of those challenges and being blind.

Definitely, Afra. She survived so much and the rape on top of that was horrible. She had to endure this while being blind. She was very brave and was able to bounce back.

Afra is so strong, to see her child die, to lose the ability to see and paint what she sees, and then to experience what she did on her escape. I can’t image being in so many different camps, using so many different types of transportation and to be headed to an unfamiliar place and not just want to curl up and die. She was an amazing character.

Afra, because she survived in spite of all she endured.

I think Nuri displayed the most emotional resilience. As a result of her blindness, Afra was able to turn more into herself- -she stayed behind, often never leaving their room or the blanket, while Nuri made arrangements and appointments. She slept a lot, thus avoiding what she was feeling. Nuri even became responsible for getting her dressed. Nuri continued to try and nurture Afra by bringing her a small gifts. It seemed that she really shut herself off from what was happing around her. Nuri, who was equally traumatized by the war in Syria and the loss of his child, had to keep the two of them moving forward each day. He was not only responsible for his safety, but that of Afra as well. Knowing that he failed in doing this at the smuggler's apartment nearly broke him. He chose to bury his feelings so he could focus on reaching England.

I felt that Afra displayed the greatest emotional resilience. She experienced seeing the death of her son and carried the guilt associated with that event. Being blinded by the tragic experience and making the journey across Turkey and Greece as well as experiencing the trying conditions of being a refugee. She was steady throughout.

I think it's really difficult to decide on one character that displayed more emotional resilience when they all endured horrific experiences. However, the physical trauma that Afra experienced, from the bomb, losing her son, her blindness, and rape, really showed her incredible resilience to endure all of those things and then still be there in the end to help Nuri through the pain he was also dealing with. I think we saw a dramatic change in Afra from the start of the book when they are still in Syria and she does not want to leave their home, to the end when she is finally starting to see again.

I think both Nuri and Afra showed amazing ability to cope emotionally with all that happened to them, although their coping mechanisms were very different. In the end, I think Afra , through her art and her openness to medical help -- when it finally presented -- was better able to adjust and provide help to her spouse than was Nuri.