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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
A Thousand Flying Things by Kathryn Brown Ramsperger begins in a camp in Southern Sudan, where humanitarian worker Dianna becomes deeply attached to a young boy named Khalil and strives to protect him from being recruited as a child soldier by camp leader Dr. Biel. Dianna's past traumas and resilience shape her determination despite Biel's hostility. In Kenya, Dianna recovers from malaria, and Qasim, a man from her past with whom she shares unresolved feelings, reappears. Sadly, Dianna's efforts to rescue Khalil are upended at the U.S. Embassy due to adoption requirements. After confronting Biel and further devastation in Sudan, Dianna must leave due to her mother's illness While in the U.S., Dianna contemplates her future, little Khalil and, ultimately, reunites with Qasim where they acknowledge the near impossibility of their relationship. After parting ways, Qasim makes a startling admission and their future, as well as Khalil's, is made more uncertain.
I knew that A Thousand Flying Things by Kathryn Brown Ramsperger would be an emotional read, but I did not expect it to be so many of those emotions coming all at once. Ramsperger's account of our protagonist Dianna's life spans years. If I'm being completely honest, storylines that stretch this timeframe tend to lose steam, but Ramsperger's time hops forward are seamless transitions that keep the plot moving at a comfortable pace. We do not lose the little bits but aren't drowning in them either. I love Ramsperger's writing and her ability to elicit huge dollops of feeling from a reader in slices of time. In a single heartbreaking chapter having just beaten cerebral malaria, she returns to the camp to find her house burned to the ground, Khalil is gone, and she receives a worst-case-scenario telegram from the States. That's the pacing of this novel, and it's spectacularly balanced. Overall, this is a beautiful story of one woman's resilience with absolutely everything going against her, with a backdrop of international horror, that still manages to warm the heart. Very highly recommended.
