Fabien Toulmé's Hakim's Odyssey, Book 3: A Review

Fabien Toulmé. Hakim's Odyssey, Book 3: From Macedonia to France (University Park, PA: Graphic Mundi, 2022). 249 pages. Translated into English by Hannah Chute.

The third instalment of this collection follows Hakim and his son Hadi in their journey across Europe. Having left Syria and tried his luck in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey (Book 1), they cross over to Greece in a leaky boat and are confronted by the EU barriers of dilly-dallying bureaucracy, the rogue people-smugglers and price-gouging scoundrels as well as the widespread animosity against people who are simply feeling political repression and persecution (Book 2).

Hakim's Odyssey, from Syria to France, completed in close to three years.

With his wife Najmeh having already settled in France, Hakim decides not to wait for an administrative miracle of sorts and pushes on, crossing the border into Macedonia, followed by Serbia and Hungary. Now, Hungary may be part of the Union, but that does not make it a welcoming place for refugees. In fact, once in Hungary, Hakim and Hadi are put into a camp where conditions are, simply put, dreadful.

No comment...

Not every day in their odyssey is beset by bad vibes and hostile attitudes, though. In some places they are given assistance by total strangers; other people who share their plight offer advice and provide very useful information on border crosses and how to avoid arrest. Yet money runs out too quickly. They are exposed to bad weather; Hadi is constantly hungry and also gets a little sick. But Hakim’s perseverance pays off and after several months they make it to Austria, Switzerland and finally, Aix-en-Provence, in France, where Najmeh has been waiting for their arrival for two years.

This kind of person should be forced to walk across Europe with hardly any money in her pocket and fleeing political repression. And every time and wherever she was told to "leave", she should be forced to backtrack her way by 350 Km. Just for the sake of it, just so she would get fitter, since a change of mind or heart appears to be impossible. 

Someone knocks on a door and an extraordinary trilogy is born... FIN.

In his epilogue, Toulmé stresses the fact that Hakim’s odyssey does not simply end when he reaches France, because their life journey keeps going: they need to integrate into their new country, learn the language, find jobs and enrol their kids at school. They will contribute to their new community in ways that few local people will actually realise. This is a reality that gets distorted by the lies, the misinformation and the hatred of the antimigrant discourse regrettably so prevalent in the West.

The three books in this trilogy should become part of middle and high school reading sets. It is a sobering story, magnificently drawn and narrated.

 Yes, it is important to record certain details of History. City of Vienna Information for Refugees Arriving from Hungary at Westbahnhof Railway Station. Photograph by Manfred Werner (Tsui).