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Hopeless Kingdom
Akita’s family have always kept moving to survive. Sudan to Cairo. Cairo to Sydney. Sydney to Geelong. At each new place, challenges test and break Akita, her four siblings and her parents. Just when eight-year-old Akita is feeling settled at her new school and community in Sydney for the first time in her life, her parents decide to relocate to Geelong to be closer to their Sudanese relatives. The move is the beginning of a downward spiral that threatens to unravel the fabric of their family and any hope for finding peace and belonging.
Told through the interchanging perspectives of Akita and her mother, Taresai, this coming of age story shines a light on the generational curses of trauma, and gives voice to the silent heartache of searching for acceptance in an adopted society which isn’t able to look past the surface of skin colour. Individually, the female narrators experience racism, rejection and despair, but together their narratives reveal a resilience of spirit and determination to transcend expectations of what a daughter, a sister, and a mother can be.
Hopeless Kingdom is the winner of the 2020 Dorothy Hewett Award. Inspired by the author’s own experience of migration from Africa to Australia, this story signals a powerful new voice in Australian writing.
From the Dorothy Hewett Award
'Akec’s story is a powerful and timely exploration of belonging, race, gender and migration … and contrasts the lives of the mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers and cousins in this family through form and language, conjuring a powerful refraction of the experiences of African Australian women. Her storytelling is deeply personal, as well as relatable and insightful.'
Told through the interchanging perspectives of Akita and her mother, Taresai, this coming of age story shines a light on the generational curses of trauma, and gives voice to the silent heartache of searching for acceptance in an adopted society which isn’t able to look past the surface of skin colour. Individually, the female narrators experience racism, rejection and despair, but together their narratives reveal a resilience of spirit and determination to transcend expectations of what a daughter, a sister, and a mother can be.
Hopeless Kingdom is the winner of the 2020 Dorothy Hewett Award. Inspired by the author’s own experience of migration from Africa to Australia, this story signals a powerful new voice in Australian writing.
From the Dorothy Hewett Award
'Akec’s story is a powerful and timely exploration of belonging, race, gender and migration … and contrasts the lives of the mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers and cousins in this family through form and language, conjuring a powerful refraction of the experiences of African Australian women. Her storytelling is deeply personal, as well as relatable and insightful.'
362 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
January 22, 2023
This story has a lot of potential, but the novel, the writing in particular, has a lot of issues that I struggled to see past.
Firstly, the narrative of Akita, from 5 years old, is far too mature and intellectual. And it doesn't develop or change over time as the voice of a young person growing up should. It is also that same voice as the mother - the other narrative in the novel. The characters are not individual or developed enough to be told apart.
There is also too much contextual detail missing. This family is Sudanese (where 91% of the population are Muslim), yet there is no mention of religion, culture, or tradition. Not saying that the book should be about religion, but it's important contextually and would help make sense of some of the narrative. Like Akita not wanting to tell her family about having boyfriend, or the mother's reluctance to discipline the oldest son, Akita's older brother. Why? And what year is this book set in? The social environment for African immigrants is different depending on the time - again, no clue.
The reader should also not have to google the meaning of something. For instance - Santo's diagnosis of DMDD. Just one paragraph about a visit to a doctor, with the acronym thrown in. Why am a googling what this is? Something like this could simply be told through the narrative of the mother, who was in the room receiving the diagnosis (in Arabic, so she understood it).
There are also big leaps in timeline - like the years of 12 to 17 years of Akita, with no reflective storyline that alludes to what happened in those important years of early adolescence, which took me further away from the story.
There are also too many inconsistencies in the story. Throughout the whole book, Akita is a quiet and reserved child with little to say who is always on the periphery of her mother's attention. Yet at the end of the book the mother describes Akita as a child who had a "fierce fire", "who used to talk about doing this and doing that"... Am I reading a different story? Terrible, annoying, and distracting.
In general, the whole book lacks a consistent storyline, I couldn't actually say what this is about, apart from an African family immigrates to Australia. Why is it difficult? You can kind of get that it's hard - yes, the father left, the son had mental illnesses. Yes mother experienced early adversity. But the rest of left for the reader to figure out or assume.
And the editing. I rarely read a book that I don't get 1 spelling or grammatical error, which is not worth mentioning. But there were whole sentences that simply didn't make sense ("Amara has never lain hands on me every couple of times" and "what I most admired about him in the at the start..." - huh?)
This one was a struggle to get through. And it won an award? I'm not actually sure how it was published and boasts 4+ stars.
Firstly, the narrative of Akita, from 5 years old, is far too mature and intellectual. And it doesn't develop or change over time as the voice of a young person growing up should. It is also that same voice as the mother - the other narrative in the novel. The characters are not individual or developed enough to be told apart.
There is also too much contextual detail missing. This family is Sudanese (where 91% of the population are Muslim), yet there is no mention of religion, culture, or tradition. Not saying that the book should be about religion, but it's important contextually and would help make sense of some of the narrative. Like Akita not wanting to tell her family about having boyfriend, or the mother's reluctance to discipline the oldest son, Akita's older brother. Why? And what year is this book set in? The social environment for African immigrants is different depending on the time - again, no clue.
The reader should also not have to google the meaning of something. For instance - Santo's diagnosis of DMDD. Just one paragraph about a visit to a doctor, with the acronym thrown in. Why am a googling what this is? Something like this could simply be told through the narrative of the mother, who was in the room receiving the diagnosis (in Arabic, so she understood it).
There are also big leaps in timeline - like the years of 12 to 17 years of Akita, with no reflective storyline that alludes to what happened in those important years of early adolescence, which took me further away from the story.
There are also too many inconsistencies in the story. Throughout the whole book, Akita is a quiet and reserved child with little to say who is always on the periphery of her mother's attention. Yet at the end of the book the mother describes Akita as a child who had a "fierce fire", "who used to talk about doing this and doing that"... Am I reading a different story? Terrible, annoying, and distracting.
In general, the whole book lacks a consistent storyline, I couldn't actually say what this is about, apart from an African family immigrates to Australia. Why is it difficult? You can kind of get that it's hard - yes, the father left, the son had mental illnesses. Yes mother experienced early adversity. But the rest of left for the reader to figure out or assume.
And the editing. I rarely read a book that I don't get 1 spelling or grammatical error, which is not worth mentioning. But there were whole sentences that simply didn't make sense ("Amara has never lain hands on me every couple of times" and "what I most admired about him in the at the start..." - huh?)
This one was a struggle to get through. And it won an award? I'm not actually sure how it was published and boasts 4+ stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 1, 2023
Winner of the 2021 Dorothy Hewitt Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, Hopeless Kingdom by debut author Kgshak Akec was already on my radar when it was longlisted for the 2023 Miles Franklin Award. Deservedly so.
Some years ago, The Spouse was reminiscing about his childhood when he happened to mention that the first time he ever heard anyone speak in a different language was when athletes competing in the 1956 Olympics were billeted near his suburban bayside home, where he had lived until adulthood. By the same age, (and even more so by the time I was ten), I was a veteran of repeatedly moving house within and beyond the UK and 'foreign languages' were no big deal — though I certainly knew what it was like not to understand what was being said to me outside my home. (And sometimes inside it. My parents sometimes spoke either French or German at home to keep things private from little ears anyway.)
And although Kgshak Akec's experience of migration and belonging is more complex than mine because her family fled the war in Sudan as refugees, her coming-of-age in a place not her own is a portrayal of an experience very common to many of us not born here in Australia. Migration makes us adaptable, flexible and open-minded about 'difference' and most of us are genuinely grateful to the country that's offered us a secure homeland — but it's also hard. It is hard for little kids to be uprooted from all that's familiar, to lose contact with their extended family and friends, to make and lose friends in one school after another, to leave behind favourite toys and play-places, to have to learn new languages and bewildering cultural mores. To always be the one who is 'different' where even the playground games are not the same, and to cop teasing and abuse for it. It's also hard to witness the success and failures of other members of the family on their journey to belong. (I think it's harder in different ways for teenagers and adolescents, which is also vividly portrayed in Hopeless Kingdom.)
Hopeless Kingdom is told in two alternating voices, beginning with Akita when she's a little refugee kid in Cairo, offset by the narrative of her mother Taresai. Akita's problems are immediate, and domestic: squabbles at home, and being bullied and unfair discipline at school. She lives in the present tense, as children do. Taresai has more complex problems. She has to learn a new language to negotiate new challenges, and her lack of literacy (because she was denied schooling) makes her dependent on others in a way that it did not before in Sudan. She has to deal with the fallout of her eldest son's aggression but she also looks to the uncertain future of her family. She sees and interprets the behaviour of all her children as individuals; she has hopes and dreams for them. She struggles to maintain connections with the extended family which isn't as supportive as it could be, and she has to deal with a husband whose frustrations at being unable to work within his professional expertise causes him to lose his way.
The novel traverses the years until Akita becomes a young woman finding her own way in the world, and Taresai negotiates the changes imposed by her husband's return to Sudan...
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/06/01/h...
Some years ago, The Spouse was reminiscing about his childhood when he happened to mention that the first time he ever heard anyone speak in a different language was when athletes competing in the 1956 Olympics were billeted near his suburban bayside home, where he had lived until adulthood. By the same age, (and even more so by the time I was ten), I was a veteran of repeatedly moving house within and beyond the UK and 'foreign languages' were no big deal — though I certainly knew what it was like not to understand what was being said to me outside my home. (And sometimes inside it. My parents sometimes spoke either French or German at home to keep things private from little ears anyway.)
And although Kgshak Akec's experience of migration and belonging is more complex than mine because her family fled the war in Sudan as refugees, her coming-of-age in a place not her own is a portrayal of an experience very common to many of us not born here in Australia. Migration makes us adaptable, flexible and open-minded about 'difference' and most of us are genuinely grateful to the country that's offered us a secure homeland — but it's also hard. It is hard for little kids to be uprooted from all that's familiar, to lose contact with their extended family and friends, to make and lose friends in one school after another, to leave behind favourite toys and play-places, to have to learn new languages and bewildering cultural mores. To always be the one who is 'different' where even the playground games are not the same, and to cop teasing and abuse for it. It's also hard to witness the success and failures of other members of the family on their journey to belong. (I think it's harder in different ways for teenagers and adolescents, which is also vividly portrayed in Hopeless Kingdom.)
Hopeless Kingdom is told in two alternating voices, beginning with Akita when she's a little refugee kid in Cairo, offset by the narrative of her mother Taresai. Akita's problems are immediate, and domestic: squabbles at home, and being bullied and unfair discipline at school. She lives in the present tense, as children do. Taresai has more complex problems. She has to learn a new language to negotiate new challenges, and her lack of literacy (because she was denied schooling) makes her dependent on others in a way that it did not before in Sudan. She has to deal with the fallout of her eldest son's aggression but she also looks to the uncertain future of her family. She sees and interprets the behaviour of all her children as individuals; she has hopes and dreams for them. She struggles to maintain connections with the extended family which isn't as supportive as it could be, and she has to deal with a husband whose frustrations at being unable to work within his professional expertise causes him to lose his way.
The novel traverses the years until Akita becomes a young woman finding her own way in the world, and Taresai negotiates the changes imposed by her husband's return to Sudan...
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/06/01/h...
January 16, 2023
my new favourite book 🫶🏻
October 12, 2022
I really enjoyed the first half of this book but I felt it lost its depth and nuance in the second half.
July 3, 2023
2023 Miles Franklin Shortlist
'Something has been calling for me. All my life'[...]' I thought it was wisdom, telling me to ignore it. But now I see that is so far from the truth. It always has been.'
The life of an immigrant family is a hard one when fleeing war, from one country to the next, hoping to find a place to belong. A home. This Sudanese family, finding racism and struggle in Giza, Egypt, move to Australia, hoping for peace.
The dual narration is told by the mother and eldest daughter of the family. They tell a compelling tale. I'm still blown away that someone could migrate to another country speaking five languages, all except for English, but unable to write in even one language, due to their circumstances. That's obviously my privilege showing, earned more by those of my family who were displaced and that migrated here, rather than myself.
The issues of mental illness, suffered by migrants seemed really well handled here.
Another strong addition to the Miles Franklin shortlist, another gem exposed by this prize.
Five of the six novels are really special, and this is one of them.
'Something has been calling for me. All my life'[...]' I thought it was wisdom, telling me to ignore it. But now I see that is so far from the truth. It always has been.'
The life of an immigrant family is a hard one when fleeing war, from one country to the next, hoping to find a place to belong. A home. This Sudanese family, finding racism and struggle in Giza, Egypt, move to Australia, hoping for peace.
The dual narration is told by the mother and eldest daughter of the family. They tell a compelling tale. I'm still blown away that someone could migrate to another country speaking five languages, all except for English, but unable to write in even one language, due to their circumstances. That's obviously my privilege showing, earned more by those of my family who were displaced and that migrated here, rather than myself.
The issues of mental illness, suffered by migrants seemed really well handled here.
Another strong addition to the Miles Franklin shortlist, another gem exposed by this prize.
Five of the six novels are really special, and this is one of them.
August 14, 2023
3.5 stars. An easy to read novel about a Sudanese family who emigrate to Geelong, Australia.
The story is told from the daughter Akita’s perspective and from the mother Taresai’s perspective. The family moves from Sudan to Cairo where they stay for over three years. They then travel to live in Sydney. Akita has four siblings, an older brother, Santo, who is a problem child, and three younger sisters. In Sydney, the father decides to go back to Sudan!
An interesting novel with good steady plot momentum and interesting characters.
This book was shortlisted for the 2023 Miles Franklin Award.
The story is told from the daughter Akita’s perspective and from the mother Taresai’s perspective. The family moves from Sudan to Cairo where they stay for over three years. They then travel to live in Sydney. Akita has four siblings, an older brother, Santo, who is a problem child, and three younger sisters. In Sydney, the father decides to go back to Sudan!
An interesting novel with good steady plot momentum and interesting characters.
This book was shortlisted for the 2023 Miles Franklin Award.
September 23, 2024
I didn’t want this one to end 🥲🤌🩵
July 10, 2024
4.5 stars. Hopeless kingdom really got me thinking and feeling, particularly towards the end. This one will stay with me.
July 26, 2024
Powerful visual story telling where what is not said, expressed or explained is often more powerful than what is.
Hopeless Kingdom is the story of the struggles to survive, thrive and belong of a family from Sudan who migrate from Giza to Sydney and settle in Geelong with their extended family.
Told from the two perspectives of the daughter Akita and the mother Taresai it shows the shifts in their relationships as Akita grows from childhood to a young adult, and the intergenerational struggles of family members to adapt, survive, thrive and belong.
Hopeless Kingdom is also a coming of age story for Akita, her wisdom, introspection and strength sometimes helping her and sometimes hindering her journey.
Hopeless Kingdom is the story of the struggles to survive, thrive and belong of a family from Sudan who migrate from Giza to Sydney and settle in Geelong with their extended family.
Told from the two perspectives of the daughter Akita and the mother Taresai it shows the shifts in their relationships as Akita grows from childhood to a young adult, and the intergenerational struggles of family members to adapt, survive, thrive and belong.
Hopeless Kingdom is also a coming of age story for Akita, her wisdom, introspection and strength sometimes helping her and sometimes hindering her journey.
August 15, 2023
I had high expectations of this book and it exceeded them all. Powerful writing.
July 20, 2023
This story is told from two perspectives- Taresai, a Sudanese migrant and Akita her daughter. The family migrates to Australia and a new chapter in their lives begins. I enjoyed the alternating stories but felt the language, although beautiful at times, was quite stilted and clumsy in parts, and didn’t ring true to the characters. The book needed a good edit.
June 25, 2023
A refugee family story with edge, truth, suburban Australia, and heart.
From Sudan her parents fled, and find themselves in Cairo, awaiting a resettlement placement. Here, among aunts and uncles, a family begins - but with devastating hardships right from the start.
Told from alternating voices, a mother and daughter weave their perspectives as the family find themselves placed in Sydney. Akita finally gets to go to school, where her and her brother are the only black children. Taresai is raising her growing family in a place where she does not know anyone, does not know how to get around, or even the language.
After a huge family splitting decision out of mother and daughter's hands, they move again, to Geelong where they find extended family have also resettled. Here, they strive for their lives, and the lives of the younger children. Facing everything the world throws at them, whilst dealing with the inner battles this path inevitably adds.
This is an unflinching fictionalised version of the author's experiences, the challenges, the losses, the racism at every turn, the constant struggle. Trauma and the burden of displacement haunts each family member, with debilitating effect - mentally, in obligation, in the struggle to keep one's family afloat.
An incredible depiction of a real refugee family story, following settlement in a country on the other side of the world to home. Such displacement has enduring impacts on every facet of life, and is told in an accessible, real way - a must read for Australians to gain a better, more compassionate understanding of these experiences.
From Sudan her parents fled, and find themselves in Cairo, awaiting a resettlement placement. Here, among aunts and uncles, a family begins - but with devastating hardships right from the start.
Told from alternating voices, a mother and daughter weave their perspectives as the family find themselves placed in Sydney. Akita finally gets to go to school, where her and her brother are the only black children. Taresai is raising her growing family in a place where she does not know anyone, does not know how to get around, or even the language.
After a huge family splitting decision out of mother and daughter's hands, they move again, to Geelong where they find extended family have also resettled. Here, they strive for their lives, and the lives of the younger children. Facing everything the world throws at them, whilst dealing with the inner battles this path inevitably adds.
This is an unflinching fictionalised version of the author's experiences, the challenges, the losses, the racism at every turn, the constant struggle. Trauma and the burden of displacement haunts each family member, with debilitating effect - mentally, in obligation, in the struggle to keep one's family afloat.
An incredible depiction of a real refugee family story, following settlement in a country on the other side of the world to home. Such displacement has enduring impacts on every facet of life, and is told in an accessible, real way - a must read for Australians to gain a better, more compassionate understanding of these experiences.
May 31, 2024
Reading this made me wonder why I haven’t read about the Sudanese migrant experience before. Akec profoundly conveys the complex emotions involved in migrating from Sudan to Egypt to Australia. While there are new opportunities at each stage, there is also grief and pain. I was particularly fascinated by her depiction of moving from western Sydney to Geelong, my own home town. She describes Corio and Norlane both in terms of the poverty and crime which characterises the area and also the beauty of the community and ultimately a sense of belonging. The most beautiful aspect of this novel is the relationship between Akira and her older brother Santo. He is her greatest defender but he also breaks her heart. Akira and her family bear great burdens from the past and the present. And above all, the writing is stunning: lyrical, poetic, evocative, reflective and honest.
July 24, 2023
A story of mothers and daughters and migration and family. By alternating the points of view between Akita and her mother Taresai we see the trials and tribulations of these women as they try to find their place in the world. With Sudan very much in the news it felt like a timely read of displacement and trauma.
November 30, 2025
3.5 stars. Heartbreaking story, strongly autobiographical, of the experiences of a Sudanese family settling in Australia. The determination and resilience of the two narrators ( mother and daughter) are inspiring. Highly recommended. Just wished that the editing had been more rigorous.
February 24, 2025
Really beautiful expression. Excited to teach it
June 1, 2024
Good story, heartbreaking.
Not a huge fan of the execution of the dual perspective. Akita’s perspective as a child felt too mature - too self aware and too many words that would not be in a five year old’s vocabulary.
Not the editor’s best work either. Some clear typing errors were missed and some story consistency was lacking. There were too many characters also for a reader to keep track of - the cousins and aunties and friends. I understand that this is what realistic life is like but a reader can’t be expected to keep up.
Not a huge fan of the execution of the dual perspective. Akita’s perspective as a child felt too mature - too self aware and too many words that would not be in a five year old’s vocabulary.
Not the editor’s best work either. Some clear typing errors were missed and some story consistency was lacking. There were too many characters also for a reader to keep track of - the cousins and aunties and friends. I understand that this is what realistic life is like but a reader can’t be expected to keep up.
December 12, 2024
fellow melburnian book!!!!!! i really loved that this book is written not only by a fellow young person, but a young melburnian!!!!! shout out to kgshak akec 🔥🔥 also shout out my library for having a copy of this 💪💪
i really enjoyed the characters, they were truly at the heart of this book. santo was probably the most compelling character, as he had layers to his character, and went through the most change. i do think this book started strong when the family were in egypt, but once they came to australia, they lost all their spark. this is probably best seen in both akita and taresai, both with different issues. taresai became quite one dimensional, repeating the same phrases and sentiments, and not really saying anything new. akita’s character did grow, but it felt like her dialogue was incredibly juvenile the entire time, even by the end of the story.
i also think the pacing of the story was slightly off. akita starts the story as a toddler and ends in her early 20s, but with 346 pages, it feels like we breeze past a lot too fast. i think her childhood in egypt was paced well, but once in australia, everything flew too fast without further exploration. it became a book of telling, not showing. the rest of the siblings almost had no personality whatsoever, occasionally having some dialogue but even then it was very generic.
there really was no story or plot like here. i think that’s really the fatal flaw with this. before the deng’s arrived in australia, the plot was following them in egypt, with ashanti in the hospital and struggling to get by. the minute we arrive in australia its almost like the plot dissolves because there is nothing there tension-wise. with the constant time skips, there really IS no tension, and instead i feel like im reading a not very interesting memoir.
that sounds so shady oh my fucking god.
i feel at times there was a lot of context missing too. it felt like the book almost touched on issues facing immigrants on a surface level, where it went nowhere. i wanted to truly dig deeper and explore more, but it felt like there were only the beginnings of conversations, not anything more than that.
i feel so bad writing a negative review for smaller authors. i really wanted to love this seeing as it’s set somewhere i know. like the mention of melbourne uni i was like “Oh!!!!! 👆 I know that place!!!!” or even like the beach i was like “I’ve been there!!!!!!”. so i really really tried to adore this. i do feel this is a story needing to be told, and a story that truly did open my eyes to things i didn’t even consider regarding immigrant familiy dynamics that are different to mine. but sadly i don’t think this book exactly pulled it off.
i want to rip my eyes out i feel so bad writing this
i really enjoyed the characters, they were truly at the heart of this book. santo was probably the most compelling character, as he had layers to his character, and went through the most change. i do think this book started strong when the family were in egypt, but once they came to australia, they lost all their spark. this is probably best seen in both akita and taresai, both with different issues. taresai became quite one dimensional, repeating the same phrases and sentiments, and not really saying anything new. akita’s character did grow, but it felt like her dialogue was incredibly juvenile the entire time, even by the end of the story.
i also think the pacing of the story was slightly off. akita starts the story as a toddler and ends in her early 20s, but with 346 pages, it feels like we breeze past a lot too fast. i think her childhood in egypt was paced well, but once in australia, everything flew too fast without further exploration. it became a book of telling, not showing. the rest of the siblings almost had no personality whatsoever, occasionally having some dialogue but even then it was very generic.
there really was no story or plot like here. i think that’s really the fatal flaw with this. before the deng’s arrived in australia, the plot was following them in egypt, with ashanti in the hospital and struggling to get by. the minute we arrive in australia its almost like the plot dissolves because there is nothing there tension-wise. with the constant time skips, there really IS no tension, and instead i feel like im reading a not very interesting memoir.
that sounds so shady oh my fucking god.
i feel at times there was a lot of context missing too. it felt like the book almost touched on issues facing immigrants on a surface level, where it went nowhere. i wanted to truly dig deeper and explore more, but it felt like there were only the beginnings of conversations, not anything more than that.
i feel so bad writing a negative review for smaller authors. i really wanted to love this seeing as it’s set somewhere i know. like the mention of melbourne uni i was like “Oh!!!!! 👆 I know that place!!!!” or even like the beach i was like “I’ve been there!!!!!!”. so i really really tried to adore this. i do feel this is a story needing to be told, and a story that truly did open my eyes to things i didn’t even consider regarding immigrant familiy dynamics that are different to mine. but sadly i don’t think this book exactly pulled it off.
i want to rip my eyes out i feel so bad writing this
June 28, 2023
‘In Sudan, I survived by running. From bullets and people who meant me harm.
In Egypt I survive by making.
How will I survive in Australia.’
The novel opens in Cairo where we meet our narrators Taresai Deng and her daughter Akita, her husband Santino and their other children Santo, Amara, and Ashanti. The family are refugees from Sudan, awaiting their move to Australia. We also meet Taresai’s mother, Adele, and her sisters and their children. Taresai has an ambivalent relationship with her mother and sisters. Taresai was denied an education: she was kept home to look after her siblings. As the novel unfolds between the perspectives of eight-year-old Akita and Taresai, the reader shifts from the immediate concerns of childhood to the more complex concerns of a mother having to move from the familiar, without English to assist.
‘From disparity you built a home for yourself and your children here in Giza and in Australia, from hope you will build nothing short of a kingdom.’
The family settles in Sydney and Akita makes friends. But just as she feels settled, the family moves again. Santino moves his family to Geelong. He has not settled and wants to return to Sudan, leaving his growing family behind. The full weight of parenting and of looking after the family falls on Taresai. Increasingly Akita helps, but Santino is ill and becomes self-destructive. Can this family ever find a home and freedom from the othering imposed by a society which struggles to accept difference? Taresai want more for her children, but the weight of her expectations threatens to alienate and crush Akita.
‘Stop pouring all your hopes and dreams into me, Ma,’ she says, her voice breaking in soft exasperation. ‘I have no room for my own, and if I continue to live my life trying and please you, I will die a failure.’
This novel was inspired by Kgshak Akec’s own experience of migration from Africa to Australia. It is a reminder of how difficult it can be for newcomers (especially those who look different and/or do not speak English) to be accepted and welcomed. So often we speak of refuge but offer resistance. And this story is complicated further by Santo’s struggles.
Highly recommended.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
In Egypt I survive by making.
How will I survive in Australia.’
The novel opens in Cairo where we meet our narrators Taresai Deng and her daughter Akita, her husband Santino and their other children Santo, Amara, and Ashanti. The family are refugees from Sudan, awaiting their move to Australia. We also meet Taresai’s mother, Adele, and her sisters and their children. Taresai has an ambivalent relationship with her mother and sisters. Taresai was denied an education: she was kept home to look after her siblings. As the novel unfolds between the perspectives of eight-year-old Akita and Taresai, the reader shifts from the immediate concerns of childhood to the more complex concerns of a mother having to move from the familiar, without English to assist.
‘From disparity you built a home for yourself and your children here in Giza and in Australia, from hope you will build nothing short of a kingdom.’
The family settles in Sydney and Akita makes friends. But just as she feels settled, the family moves again. Santino moves his family to Geelong. He has not settled and wants to return to Sudan, leaving his growing family behind. The full weight of parenting and of looking after the family falls on Taresai. Increasingly Akita helps, but Santino is ill and becomes self-destructive. Can this family ever find a home and freedom from the othering imposed by a society which struggles to accept difference? Taresai want more for her children, but the weight of her expectations threatens to alienate and crush Akita.
‘Stop pouring all your hopes and dreams into me, Ma,’ she says, her voice breaking in soft exasperation. ‘I have no room for my own, and if I continue to live my life trying and please you, I will die a failure.’
This novel was inspired by Kgshak Akec’s own experience of migration from Africa to Australia. It is a reminder of how difficult it can be for newcomers (especially those who look different and/or do not speak English) to be accepted and welcomed. So often we speak of refuge but offer resistance. And this story is complicated further by Santo’s struggles.
Highly recommended.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
November 5, 2024
This heart-stirring novel is inspired by Kgshak Akec's experience of migration from Africa to Australia. Although not autobiographical, it gives us a real insight into the situations and barriers faced by people of different ethnicity in the Australian environment.
As a young girl, Akita, her parents and siblings flee Sudan and find themselves in Cairo, where she is bullied by an older boy. Her brother, Santo, comes to her aid then and many other times. She is always the sensible one and he is a rule-breaker and therefore gets into trouble.
They all feel fortunate to be resettled in Sydney Australia and Akita quickly adapts to a new school and a new language. Her mother finds it difficult not to understand. Their father is a translator in a government office but he gradually becomes disenchanted with that role because he is a qualified architect. There are two younger daughters and the mother realises she is pregnant again.
At this point the father decides he will return to Sudan on his own, which he does once the new baby boy is born. This causes a huge rupture in the family, but the mother's mother and sister have also arrived in Australia by then. This is a mixed blessing because is a history of ill will between the sisters and the mother. It also entails another move to Geelong.
The mother has to take on two jobs in order to try to maintain the family - as well as study English - leaving Akita responsible for looking after her younger siblings. By then Santo has gone off the rails completely. He was diagnosed with ADHD but does not take his meds and gets in with a bad crowd. They lose touch with him.
Akita's relationship with her own mother is touching and heart-breaking - neither of them able to reach across to comfort the other.
At one point Santo returns home late at night and forces his way in, seeming not to recognise Akita. He assaults her viciously. By all accounts the mother returns and finds them both unconscious on the lawn. She comforts Santo, but offers little to Akita, who finds this unforgivable.
The ending of the book is perplexing and needs some thought.
As a young girl, Akita, her parents and siblings flee Sudan and find themselves in Cairo, where she is bullied by an older boy. Her brother, Santo, comes to her aid then and many other times. She is always the sensible one and he is a rule-breaker and therefore gets into trouble.
They all feel fortunate to be resettled in Sydney Australia and Akita quickly adapts to a new school and a new language. Her mother finds it difficult not to understand. Their father is a translator in a government office but he gradually becomes disenchanted with that role because he is a qualified architect. There are two younger daughters and the mother realises she is pregnant again.
At this point the father decides he will return to Sudan on his own, which he does once the new baby boy is born. This causes a huge rupture in the family, but the mother's mother and sister have also arrived in Australia by then. This is a mixed blessing because is a history of ill will between the sisters and the mother. It also entails another move to Geelong.
The mother has to take on two jobs in order to try to maintain the family - as well as study English - leaving Akita responsible for looking after her younger siblings. By then Santo has gone off the rails completely. He was diagnosed with ADHD but does not take his meds and gets in with a bad crowd. They lose touch with him.
Akita's relationship with her own mother is touching and heart-breaking - neither of them able to reach across to comfort the other.
At one point Santo returns home late at night and forces his way in, seeming not to recognise Akita. He assaults her viciously. By all accounts the mother returns and finds them both unconscious on the lawn. She comforts Santo, but offers little to Akita, who finds this unforgivable.
The ending of the book is perplexing and needs some thought.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 1, 2023
A carefully written piece of fiction that has much truth in it. Truly a first for me, to read a fictional narrative that follows the journey of two women primarily, a mother and daughter, Taresai and Akita. Told from both points of view, this story starts in Giza, Egypt where the family await visas for another country, they don't know which. When visas for Australia arrive they don't know what awaits them in this new mysterious land, but it won't be like the wartorn home that they left behind.
Dealing with the refugee narrative through fiction gives Kgshak Akec the licence to construct a narrative from these people's lives that I don't think we've read before in such detail. And with the ability to be more personal than a memoir would allow.
From Taresai's isolation in her new home, both from the community, her children and eventually her husband. To Akita and her brother and sister's easier assimilation into their new lives, social circles and language. This is a story that is new. Not because I don't know that it happens, but new because I've never read a story about it before.
There is a grittiness and honesty to the way Akec handles this subject matter. Talking through the difficulties of highly challenged family relationships, and the toll of drugs on this family's mental health.
Mostly this is a story of family and love that stands the test of a life that is so real.
The result of time and work, this book is well worth a read.
Dealing with the refugee narrative through fiction gives Kgshak Akec the licence to construct a narrative from these people's lives that I don't think we've read before in such detail. And with the ability to be more personal than a memoir would allow.
From Taresai's isolation in her new home, both from the community, her children and eventually her husband. To Akita and her brother and sister's easier assimilation into their new lives, social circles and language. This is a story that is new. Not because I don't know that it happens, but new because I've never read a story about it before.
There is a grittiness and honesty to the way Akec handles this subject matter. Talking through the difficulties of highly challenged family relationships, and the toll of drugs on this family's mental health.
Mostly this is a story of family and love that stands the test of a life that is so real.
The result of time and work, this book is well worth a read.
March 22, 2024
This book won the 2020 Dorothy Hewett award for an unpublished manuscript, and as a first book, I suspect that it has a strong autobiographical element. It has a double narrative of mother and daughter, retelling the same events from their own perspective. Taresai, a Sudanese woman, has emigrated to Australia with her husband and four children, while her eldest daughter Akita is forced to take over the care of her younger siblings as it is expected an eldest daughter will do. Ironically, Taresai herself was placed in a similar situation with her siblings back in Sudan, where her education was sacrificed for that of her younger sisters, still a source of festering resentment between Taresai and the other women in her family.
To the extent that there is a 'typical' migrant story, this is it, but told from the "other side". It is a good exploration of belonging and not belonging, mother and daughter relationships, and the migrant experience. Akec isn't the first first-generation Australian writer to gain acclaim with her debut work - I'm thinking particularly of Alice Pung- and I'm interested to see if her next novel takes her beyond autobiographical writing.
For my complete review, please visit:
https://residentjudge.com/2024/03/22/...
To the extent that there is a 'typical' migrant story, this is it, but told from the "other side". It is a good exploration of belonging and not belonging, mother and daughter relationships, and the migrant experience. Akec isn't the first first-generation Australian writer to gain acclaim with her debut work - I'm thinking particularly of Alice Pung- and I'm interested to see if her next novel takes her beyond autobiographical writing.
For my complete review, please visit:
https://residentjudge.com/2024/03/22/...
September 25, 2023
Two narrators greatly enrich Hopeless Kingdom with different perspectives. The mother, the daughter and their various little joys, triumphs, struggles and heartache-y points in life. Hopeless Kingdom deals with great big themes of migration, racism and how wounds can be passed on from generation to generation. Oh how painful it is to read through the passages where Akita picks up after her family, the points in time when it gets all too much...The pain when Mum realises the burden's been passed on. The inevitability of it all. Gah! Also, clearly daughters picking up the slack for brothers is a universal thing. Sheesh. On another note, the entire passage about the story about the sky and the sea (pages 298-300) was beautiful and I am glad to have read it.
"When there were times of uncertainty, when the sky and the sea could not see each other clearly, they could do nothing but wait. The sky refused to command her suns to manipulate time,, and the sea could not lift the fog and only waited for the clouds to pass. When they would reunite, the sky and the sea painted the world in colours. The sky loved how the sea reflected her beauty back to her between the ripples of his tides, the way her stars would glimmer in his waves, the colour of her creations mirrored on the surface of his being."
June 25, 2023
"In an instant I’m overcome with such a feeling of dread that sits on me heavily, stretching the seconds into an eternity. It feels like all that is wrong with the world is beneath my skin, inside my bones, in my veins. It happens, this feeling, often without a trigger, manifesting itself inside of me until there’s none of me left."
Akec's prose is always expressive, making the alternating chapters between Akita and her mother Tarasai compelling to read. The book follows Akita from early childhood through to adulthood, charting the difficult path of refugees. Throughout the novel, Akita's brother looms, struggling with demons that might have been tameable with a different life saga.
Akec excels at writing Akita as a child - there were some uneven patches as the years skip past - but Tarasai's voice is enough to keep coming back for. At it's best moments, this novel soars, a portrait of the impossibility of family, and what cannot be discarded.
Akec's prose is always expressive, making the alternating chapters between Akita and her mother Tarasai compelling to read. The book follows Akita from early childhood through to adulthood, charting the difficult path of refugees. Throughout the novel, Akita's brother looms, struggling with demons that might have been tameable with a different life saga.
Akec excels at writing Akita as a child - there were some uneven patches as the years skip past - but Tarasai's voice is enough to keep coming back for. At it's best moments, this novel soars, a portrait of the impossibility of family, and what cannot be discarded.
February 25, 2023
We follow a young Sudanese girl Akita and her family as she moves from Cairo to Sydney, Australia and eventually settles in Geelong, Victoria.
Moving between her mother Taresai and Akita's viewpoints readers gain insight into the two woman's lives who are struggling to fit in and find a place to call home.
Facing racism, a family breakdown and coming of age in a world unfamiliar to them, this text will hold you from beginning to end.
Kgshak Akec has certainly carefully constructed a story which depicts both a mother and daughters strength and determination to succeed in life no matter what.Kgshak's words float along perfectly and her beautiful lines are like poetry as readers become wrapped up in the story following one delicate sentence after another.
Such an important story that will stay with you long after you finish reading. Well done Kgshak you should be so proud!
Moving between her mother Taresai and Akita's viewpoints readers gain insight into the two woman's lives who are struggling to fit in and find a place to call home.
Facing racism, a family breakdown and coming of age in a world unfamiliar to them, this text will hold you from beginning to end.
Kgshak Akec has certainly carefully constructed a story which depicts both a mother and daughters strength and determination to succeed in life no matter what.Kgshak's words float along perfectly and her beautiful lines are like poetry as readers become wrapped up in the story following one delicate sentence after another.
Such an important story that will stay with you long after you finish reading. Well done Kgshak you should be so proud!
August 21, 2023
Akec's first novel has been well received and tells the trauma's suffered by her family as they flee from their home in Sudan, finding refuge first in Egypt before being accepted as refugees to Australia. Akita and her parents and siblings face further difficulties in Australia with racism and differences in cultural identity. Different members of the family deal with this in their own ways from resilience to despair and the value of unconditional love shines through. A challenging story told with heart, which for me suffered from the writer's difficulties with the language. A bold beginning to what i hope will be a fine career for this young woman.
November 22, 2023
I was sooo close to giving this a 2.5 but I didn’t, because of the last maybe quarter? Fifth? But even that feels like a stretch. This feels like another book that needed a better editor and a better printer - the copy I borrowed from the library had so many print errors and grammar issues that I struggled to get through. I also found the prose really pretentious at times, particularly when Akita is meant to be 6 at the start of the book. I have given this more than 2.5 stars because Akita’s storyline is incredibly empowering and I enjoyed the family anthology style this tried to play into.
September 27, 2023
This book, in the end, was quite moving, but I found The vagueness and lack of judgement that Akec approaches the absentee father in the story to be unsettling. Within the context of the book it doesn’t even make sense. Work way too hard to grant your family to opportunity to enter Australia only to go back to Sudan because of…..pride? The motivation of the husband character didn’t make sense, wasn’t fleshed out, and was too one-dimensional for my taste.
October 12, 2022
When you start reading Hopeless Kingdom by Kgshak Akec, you may expect a novel about migration, but what you’ll discover is a story about family, alongside the frictions they face as they find a place to call home.
Read my interview with Kgshak here: https://shedefined.com.au/life/books/...
Read my interview with Kgshak here: https://shedefined.com.au/life/books/...
February 5, 2023
This is such a powerful story of displacement, racism, intergenerational trauma, and the African diaspora. It was mildly let down by the editing, especially in the last 1/3 of the book where complete sentences didn't make sense. I can foresee this book becoming an Australian highschool text much like Looking For Alibrandi. So poetic, raw, and insightful.
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