Shorelines: Memory, migration and the selves we become

by Alycia Pirmohamed

As a young Muslim woman Alycia Pirmohamed grew up with her body as racialised and her faith as seemingly dangerous. Her affinity to the natural world – the mountains, elk and pines of her childhood – conflicted with feelings that she was unwelcome in these landscapes. By contrast, the stories of her parents’ homeland – the monsoon winds, red clay roads and abundant korosho trees – felt painfully distant.

Across interrelated pieces that move from Midwestern Canada to East Africa, the Pacific Northwest to the British Isles, the award-winning poet traces the legacies of migration and memory on her life, examining the idea of homeland and the mythmaking it demands. She creatively resists the expectations of nature writing and memoir, at times choosing to withhold as much as she reveals.

Shorelines moves from lavender skies to lighthouses, from surefooted ideas to liminal spaces. It asks what it means to carry hidden histories across borders and generations – and how losing family can mean losing the place they are from too. Above all, it explores how place and identity intertwine, and how our choices, our actions and the ways we build community shape us into who we become.

259 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication August 13, 2026

Reviews

[Stephen the Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There is beauty in the selves we become, that there is so much to love right here, right now."

"Pilgrimage is a kind of freedom that is also a sort of bondage because when you undertake a pilgrimage, you're bund to everything about the road."

Occasionally, you read a book that feels beyond categorisation, beyond compartmentalising and as a result pushed your thinking about life and being. We all make journeys in our lives- moving home; leaving family; travelling to new destinations and sometimes taking giant steps that lead to pivotal changes in our identity and place in society,

Alycia Pirmohamed opens her heart and mind to take us on a personal exploration of her 'self'- as she reflects upon her parents migration from Tanzania to Canada and their subsequent lives; the impact of colonisation over generations; her childhood and navigation into adulthood and self-identity and most importantly how it is through the natural world and wider landscapes and environments of the mountains, oceans, forests she is able to truly find comfort and explanations to deeper questions.

This is not a linear autobiographical work - Alycia journey and reflections move between periods of time and location - from Canadian family life to city dwelling in Edinburgh to travels to Tanzania's largest city Dar- Es- Salaam and a beautiful selection of locations that are close to the natural elements.

Poetic, heart-felt and deeply reflective. Although written from a personal perspective, this is the story of all of us - who are we, how we evolve through our family experiences, transitions through relationships , personal choices and wider interactions to become the people we are.

But Alycia Pirmohamed takes us deeper and explores how immersing herself within nature and locations , often of isolation , enables her to bring a more profound insight into her identity and relationship with the world around her.- sensory and physical contact with her body further deepens understanding. In particular, the sections of Lighthouses and the oceans connected deeply with me.

This is a book that demands time and moments to pause- some sections need re-reading but it is Alycia's voice as a poet that shines through and the rawness to which she reflects upon her being is truly palpable. This is nature /autobiographical writing unlike any other I have explored and it is worth the journey .

Thank you to Canongate books and NetGalley for the advance copy for an honest review.