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Das Meer am Morgen by Margaret Mazzantini
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Das Meer am Morgen (original 2011; edition 2012)

by Margaret Mazzantini, Karin Krieger (Übersetzer)

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1188229,701 (3.52)None
When the Water is Safer than the Land As Gaddafi clings to power in Libya, Farid and his mother Jamila chance their luck on the hazardous crossing to Sicily. But as they hunker down in a trafficker's battered old boat, the vastness of the Mediterranean begins to dawn. Meanwhile, in Sicily, Vito wanders the desolate beaches recalling his mother's stories of her idyllic childhood in Libya. She has never forgotten - nor forgiven - the forces that tore her from her childhood love, a young Arab boy whose fate was very different from her own. Moving back and forth between the continents, this deeply moving portrait focuses on two families and one stretch of water, and in terse, lyrical language, captures perfectly the dark, uncertain quality of our times.… (more)
Member:marzipanz
Title:Das Meer am Morgen
Authors:Margaret Mazzantini
Other authors:Karin Krieger (Übersetzer)
Info:Dumont Buchverlag (2012), Edition: 1, Gebundene Ausgabe, 127 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:to read, maybe, fiction, novel, roman, italy, europe, flüchtline, migration

Work Information

Morning Sea by Margaret Mazzantini (2011)

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English (3)  German (2)  Spanish (1)  Dutch (1)  Italian (1)  All languages (8)
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I picked this up at random in the library. not sure why, the version I read had a simply awful cover (not the one shown here). Im glad for whatever impulse made me pick it up.

The writing is gorgeous, restrained, elegant and flowing and effortlessly plucked at my emotions and build up fantastic images. An equally harrowing and uplifting story. ( )
  mjhunt | Jan 22, 2021 |
This short novel looks at Libya in 2010, through the eyes of two unrelated, and unknown to each other, families. Both are from Tripoli. One, descendants of Italian colonizers, was expelled and repatriated to Italy in the 1970s when Gaddafi first took power. The other, descendants of Bedouins, is fleeing Gaddafi's regime. One gets to visit Tripoli for the first time in decades, the other is on the water for the first time ever.

Mazzantini's writing is magnificent. This book is just 143 pages, yet it hold so much. She touches on colonialism, nationalism, ethnic/religious divisions, and how all of these affect reguklar people going about their business as candlemakers (the expelled family), TV installers (the fleeing family), beekeepers, friends, students, teachers, and more. Very well done, I need to read her longer, award-winning books [book:Don't Move|472800] and [book:Twice Born|10725494]. ( )
  Dreesie | Aug 9, 2020 |
Morning Sea by Margaret Mazzantini, translated by Ann Gagliardi This was one of those books that I should have read the back cover on before picking it up. Don't get me wrong, I hope I still would have read it, particularly for WIT Month, but I would have had a better idea what I was getting myself into. Here's the back cover information from Goodreads: 
 

When Farid’s beautiful young mother Jamila tries to escape Libya by boat, it is the first time that Farid will see the sea. This is the same sea into which Vito stares from a beach on the opposite side — Farid and Jamila’s destination. But unfortunately, the Mediterranean does not fulfill its promise of a new life for the two young refugees. Instead, it becomes their prison.A tale of moving intensity, Morning Sea is about human migration. It is about the fate of those exiled from their houses, relatives, and roots; about the violence of nature and war; and about the strength of women compelled by injustice to defend their children’s futures. With terse and astute language, Mazzantini captures perfectly the dark, uncertain quality of our times. She asks: when must we commit ourselves to the right of all humans to live with dignity and respect?
 

It's a sad and realistic human strife story that still manages to have a beautiful end. It wasn't the end I wanted for the characters, just like it's not what I would wish on real people going through these events, but surprisingly beautiful once I had a chance to sit with it. Sitting with the end was crucial to enjoying it though because it hit me a little hard that things didn't go a certain way, but I don't want to spoil it. 
The writing style is a big part of what I enjoyed about it. It feels like a daydream, and to a certain extent, it is. It took a few pages for me to get used to the way it drifted between memories and backstory and present circumstances, but it flowed eloquently and gave a full picture of the lives of the characters. It had a wistful quality that didn't impede upon the strife the characters are going through or had gone through. 
I enjoyed reading it, and feel like these are the kinds of stories that American literature is severely lacking. We have a tendency to romanticize human strife and stories about migrating so that they are always about getting rich and rarely about basic survival. We tend to lose focus on the fact that there are people out there dying for food and the privilege of not to becoming terrorists. The things that happen to these people are the topics that we don't like to talk about and we try to pretend aren't real, that they somehow brought their plight upon themselves.
This is only one view, but a vital one that we miss in the US. This is one example among many that are the type of stories that we need to be reading more of. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to understand the world a little better. 
And again, the end caught me by surprise, not because it left reality and did the thing that I wanted it to, but because it stayed in reality and was still beautiful. Sad, but beautiful in an ethereal or tenuous sort of way that will haunt me anyway because I had to remember that this was the way of things and at least something beautiful could be made of it in this story, even though it doesn't come near the way I wish it could. 
It's a tragic reminder that there are people out there who we could we help but don't. If you're looking for a way to help, there are some groups and organizations mentioned in my reading that I have links to on the Beyond the Books page.  ( )
  Calavari | Sep 28, 2016 |
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Margaret Mazzantiniprimary authorall editionscalculated
Bunnik, MiriamTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Farid non ha mai visto il mare, non c'è mai entrato dentro.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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When the Water is Safer than the Land As Gaddafi clings to power in Libya, Farid and his mother Jamila chance their luck on the hazardous crossing to Sicily. But as they hunker down in a trafficker's battered old boat, the vastness of the Mediterranean begins to dawn. Meanwhile, in Sicily, Vito wanders the desolate beaches recalling his mother's stories of her idyllic childhood in Libya. She has never forgotten - nor forgiven - the forces that tore her from her childhood love, a young Arab boy whose fate was very different from her own. Moving back and forth between the continents, this deeply moving portrait focuses on two families and one stretch of water, and in terse, lyrical language, captures perfectly the dark, uncertain quality of our times.

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