Book Review: A Very Large Expanse of Sea

Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi is an incredibly beautiful and relevant story about two teenagers falling in love set against post-9/11 America.

High school is a struggle for everyone. But, for anyone who looks different, high school can be more than a struggle; it can be hell. Shirin does look different: she is a Muslim-American teenager who wears a hijab. Her parents are Iranian immigrants who move the family around frequently as they get better-paying jobs; they want only the best for their children, Shirin and her older brother Navid.

Where Navid is charismatic and the exotically handsome boy that many of the girls giggle over, Shirin is constantly told that she is the “other” and experiences the sexism present in both her religion and American society. She is stared at, threatened, and mocked in her hijab. She tries to shield herself against all of the open racism, ignorance, and bigotry by secretly using earbuds under her scarf and feigning a steely indifference to everyone around her. In reality, though, every rude (and sometimes violent) comment and double-take stare at her appearance do indeed effect her. She’s tired and angry.

Ocean James, the high school golden boy and star of the basketball team, is assigned to be her biology partner. He’s also the first person to really see beyond Shirin’s outward appearance and someone who opens her eyes to see beyond the appearances of others, too. Their love story is real and sweet and complicated and wonderful.

Tahereh Mafi, herself an Iranian-American,captures the details of the Persian culture vividly which allow readers a peek into a world they may know nothing about. For Persian readers, it is a joy to finally see representation on the page. Mafi also writes eloquently of a woman’s choice (Shirin’s explanations for why she wears the hijab are deeply personal rather than religiously motivated), living with hate and racism (Shirin’s experience after 9/11 with two classmates who harm her and the police’s reaction after is particularly heartbreaking) as well as love and support (like joining her brother’s break dancing crew and finding a place for herself in school). She writes of what can happen if you choose to be open to emotions and to people.

A Very Large Expanse of Sea will make you smile, cry, and think. Shirin shares, “The more I got to know people, the more I realized we were all just a bunch of frightened idiots walking around in the dark, bumping into each other and panicking for no reason at all. So I started turning on a light.” This book is a light.

★ ★ ★ ★ out of 4