Our Shared Shelf discussion

Let us know what you thought of Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian - My Story of Rescue, Hope, and Triumph !!

Please note that this thread may contain spoilers

I found the story of Yusra inspiring. What a brave young woman! Though I found the writingstyle a bit bland, I would have liked to feel more of her emotions.
But that could just be the language barrier.

I loved this book. Thanks to OSS for making me aware of it. I got it no problem at my local library.

The last part of the book really brought everything togther for me. Throughout the story all of these bad things are happening to her (bombings, the boat, etc) and she almost normalized them at the time. She doesn't fully get perspective until she's been in Germany for some time. People are amazed and surprised at what she went through. Other people are suprised she had a "normal" childhood (outside of the violence). It was a shock to people that she had a phone and laptop with Facebook. They had the perception that Syria was only what was shown in the media. Even throughout her journey, there were multiple times she thought about going back to be with family and friends despite the violence. Her internal struggle really stood out for me.

It is not until the very end that she accepts that she needs to be that voice for others. Coming from an athletic background, I understand knowing the internal dilemma of not being good enough to qualify but still be given an opportunity. There is a competitiveness in athletes that won't allow free rides...everything you accomplish should be earned. The internal debate she has on if she should accept a "hand out" just because of the word refugee really got to me. In the end she realized being a voice for others is a huge accomplishment.

It is great to know that she is still on track for her 2020 Tokyo goals. I will be rooting for her, not because she's a refugee but because, she kept with it and continues to follow her dream. Great story.

Chad wrote: "The last part of the book really brought everything togther for me. Throughout the story all of these bad things are happening to her (bombings, the boat, etc) and she almost normalized them at the..."

This is a great review, thank you for sharing :)

Yusra Mardini's story is one that I've found very inspiring since I first heard it a couple of years ago, and I'm so glad this book exists because it's so rich, there's something in it that I think everyone could take from it. It gives you a first-hand account of a horrifying war and how people, young people especially, live through it; but also, it's a powerful story about survival and achieving your dreams.

Mardini has such a fun and unique voice, but she doesn't shy away from describing the many horrors she witnessed in her homeland, but how she talks about her family, her friends and swimming humanizes these horrors. We get to see the lives of people that would otherwise only be statistics.

I was thoroughly moved and inspired by the book, I hope that Mardini has many more great things coming her way in the future but I'm sure that she'll just make them happen for herself. What a wonderful, powerful story about a wonderful, powerful young woman.

I found it interesting to read the book as a autobiography (co-written by Josie Le Blond) dealing with traumatic experiences. I’ve read in some comments that readers lack emotion and while I agree that the tone keeps rather to point for two thirds of the book, I do not think this is a downside. The direct style and short sentences make it easy-read and support the speed of the plot at relevant points. Although I found the Butterfly-figure a little too flat.
For me, it was still unbearable to read their travel to and through Europe. I consider the last third of the book a reflection of the two previous. Yusra admits that the questions about the boat are the hardest and that she keeps to facts in interviews. I guess that for her, the book is also a way to correct all the newspaper articles full of imagined things and giving Sarah her place back in the story. I especially liked the part about Yusra understanding the impact of her having a voice in the (inter-)national discourse on migration.

Getting back to my thoughts about writing trauma: How to put into words something that is more emotion than anything else. Considering the plot, you have the direct style and her dreams as markers of both avoidance and confrontation. It is not about making sense, more about giving an account of what happened. Considering the structure, I don‘t think there are a lot of blank spaces through the focus on swimming. In the latest third she talks about the Facebook posts and news about Syria in some minor paragraphs and how sad, guilty an desperate this made her feel. This is where she describes her feelings more detailed but I guess up to that point the reader fills the story with her/his own emotions. So maybe that could be considered as blank spaces.
I also found it very interesting to read her acknowledgments in the end of the book because it makes clear that while writing this book, she needed help in reconstructing some steps. And I guess that this is the huge impact of the book and the strength of both Mardinis for me: while it is natural to forget or suppress memories in order to psychological survive, they go back (Sarah quite literally) and relive their suffering and they even do the opposite in keeping it in a book (understood as the cultural technique of safeguarding information and narratives). The book itself becomes a heavy counterweight in the public discussion about refugees.

Clara, thanks for the shout-out to Josie Le Blond. It was an oversight for me to not mention her in my post. As much as the book is Mardini's and about her, I'm sure Le Blond helped in shaping it.

I agree with you that the butterfly metaphor could've been more recurring to make an impact and to follow the title more, but it's not really a blight on the book for me. Your observations about the use of her dreams as part of the strucutre were on-point!

I loved the double meaning of the title. Not only did it encapsulate her swimming stroke as a way to change her life, but as with all butterflies....she emerged with a 'new' life.

I found Yusra Mardini's story very moving and unique inasmuch as it shows this hard journey from a teenager's perspective. There was a moment in the book which for me highlighted just how young she and her sister were and how horrible this must've been for them: when they got to Greece and were turned away by the hotel even though they could afford a room there and she didn't understand why it was happening. That really broke my heart.

While most of the book was more or less a timeline of her travel to Europe, the last part of the book was the most emotional where she opens up about her internal struggles. The fact that after all she's been through she chooses to be a voice for refugees and be in the public eye shows great strength in my opinion.
She's definitely a very inspiring person and I wish her all the best for the 2020 Olympics!

One of the things I found most interesting was the relationship between Sara and Yusra. Their relationship highlights the many ways it is possible to help people. Sara does important work on the ground, helping refugees in both Greece and Germany get settled and start to find their way. Yusra shows them that life and happiness after such a hard journey is possible and draws attention to the millions of refugees who have been displaced worldwide. Both are vital to working toward a world where every person has safety and a home.

I think that Yusra has a great story to tell. She’s brave, modest, and really inspirational.

I agree that when Yusra was talking about the disaster around her she almost did normalize them. I think that living in disaster for such a long time helped normalize the events in Yusra’s mind. When she’s out of Syria, it’s only then she realizes that despite having normal attributes to her childhood, the events around her were far from normal. She did see them as a little normal until everyone kept asking her for the boat story. I think with the writing style, it’s incredibly hard to portray trauma. The journey taken in this book is something that most people reading the book don’t ever think about facing. I think that when she had such ‘abnormal’ events taking place to the average reader, it’s hard to portray the trauma and dangers going on. It’s really hard to relate to the danger she faces, but she does a really good job of relating to the readers through her emotions.

I think it was interesting on her perspective with the word refugee. At first she seems to not want anyone’s pity for being a refugee, and she doesn’t like the confining label it puts on her. I can relate to this, and I think that even though this book wasn’t about feminism per se, it still put labeling into perspective. I think people tend to see a label more than the actual person. It’s too often we as a society see labels (i.e. refugee, feminist, immigrant, or perhaps people’s religions) instead of seeing someone for who they are beyond the label. Yusra’s perspective on the label ‘refugee’ made me think about how we label people too often. I’m glad that Yusra came into perspective at the end that refugee doesn’t define her, but it’s something she is. She accepts it as a title but not a definition.

I also like how modest Yusra came off in the book. She doesn’t realize how epic the events in her life were and how brave she was until she starts doing press. She realizes that everything she went through isn’t a normal thing to go through for people in other countries. She accepts this and instead of having others pity her she uses her voice to help others. She has that conflict of having her dream within reach, but she also isn’t sure she deserves her dream at the time it’s presented to her. I think it’s really selfless of her to use her fame to bring attention to refugees.

I did also find it interesting to learn about Yusra’s relationships along the way. She already had a built relationship with her family and friends along the way, but I found it particularly interesting the relationships she made on the way. She met journalists and other people looking to run away and befriended them. I find it interesting how this trauma brings together people to run away, and how they all connect to help each other. It’s interesting how much trust they put in all these people, and how they all become one kind of big family.

It was overall a really great read, and I’m glad that it was a book for OSS, as I probably wouldn’t have realized it even existed otherwise. It’s great to see the strength Yusra shows, and it’s an overall really inspirational story. I’m glad that I got to read from a different perspective, and from someone who actually faced this journey head on. Too often, I think we look over the journey someone has to go through and we just see a person as a refugee. I read Enrique’s Journey, and I was glad to see the difference and similarities in their journeys.

I found Butterfly to be a touching and inspiring memoir of determination, strength, courage and selflessness. Mardini tells the story of her and her family’s experience living in and eventually fleeing from war-torn Syria, and her continual dedication to her dream of becoming an Olympic athlete.

Refreshingly honest and heartfelt, Mardini’s writing style—though simple and straightforward—was befitting her age, experience and personality. Though some elements felt like they were told from a more neutral rather than a deeply emotive or reflective perspective, that was understandable for someone who truly went through hell and likely compartmentalized some of her experiences—or as she said herself, some elements were just so ingrained in her every day life that they didn’t seem shocking to her. However, there were quite a few other times when I found myself tearing up or feeling angry at everything these refugees have to deal with. Her memoir kept me captivated from start to finish.

Though her message got a touch repetitive at times, I appreciated that she spoke to how she seeks to use her notoriety to bring awareness to the refugee crisis, and how she did what she could to try and turn the spotlight off of her and back onto her other Refugee Olympic Team teammates as well as refugees as a whole.

I look forward to following Yusra in the 2020 Olympics if she makes the team, along with all the other courageous refugee athletes.

In most memoirs; time + age + other life's experiences tend to lessen the internal struggles that lead to big decisions. But for Mardini, this is all still fresh and raw; so she tells you about her and her sisters bad points, she gives really good reasons why she should just be a regular teenage athlete and then changes her mind. She shares generous moments that restores your faith in humanity and glosses over some hard parts like an exhausted survivor.

It's a great insight into the life of a teenager who was thrown into a horrendous situation and who made it out due to resiliency and dedication, family, and a bit of luck.

Hello, can someone please help direct me to how write hidden spoilers with the HTML code in this thread?...I want to leave a review but don’t want to spoil it for others. Many thanks!

Thanks Meelie!


I read this in March and don’t have the book on hand so just brief thoughts. (view spoiler)[ Intriguing in parts, especially the sections covering her life in Syria. I commend her strength to overcome obstacles and glad I read it. For me its writing expression was a bit on the surface at times where I wished for more depth - potentially due to a language barrier or writing in a non-native language, not really sure the reason nor do I want I speculate on that. I think it would be interesting to hear her sister Sara’s point of view as well.
(hide spoiler)]

Anyway I am reading your reviews and comments with interest and in future hopefully can borrow the book to read it again.

Debbie wrote: "I found Butterfly to be a touching and inspiring memoir of determination, strength, courage and selflessness. Mardini tells the story of her and her family’s experience living in and eventually fle..."

Well said Debbie! I concur with your review as I had similar thoughts when I read it in March and after reading your better expressed review it’s given me perspective. Thank you!

I just finished the audio book and found it very inspiring. I didn't know about Yusra's story before and I think the book is really an eye-opener because you get an insight into the life and thoughts of a young woman living in the war, deciding to go to Europe to have a perspective in life.
Yusra Mardini not only pursues her career but also accepts her part as an inspiration to other people. The process of this becomes clear throughout the book.

I really loved this book. I found her journey, her struggle to fulfill her dream, her hesitance to accept a place on the refugee team without "earning" her spot, and her relationship with her sister to be such powerful moments in her book. Having never read anything about refugees before and what the journey can be like, this book was incredibly eye-opening.

I love how Yusra decides to use her moments in the spotlight to shed light on the refugee situation. She realizes that although her ultimate dream is to be an Olympian, she has to use her time in Rio to help those in need. Herself and her sister are incredible women and heroes to look up to.

This book was really impressive. It was really hard for me to deal with the treatment of the refugees which was described in the book. I admire the strength of Yusra and that she never gives up although it was a very traumatic experience and sometimes seemed hopeless because of the problems on her way to Germany.

In my opinion, this book is showing very well how people can live their dreams if they really want to, also if they´re in a seemingly hopeless situation. Unfortunately, it also shows how unfairly many refugees are still being treated on their way to a new life today.

I admire the ambition with which Yusra pursues her goals, reached them and now motivates refugees from all over the world to follow their dreams and not to give up.

In summary it was a very well readable book with an important kind of view on the situation of a syrian refugee and I really enjoyed reading it.

I just finished the book and I liked it, but I am also a bit disappointed. After having read all these great reviews here I expected more.

First, I nearly quit reading during the first chapter, when she describes how her father trained them. I was horrified and got sick about reading how a father can force a swimming career on his children so ruthlessly, even breaking their bones. I was relieved that in the end she decided she wanted to go to the Olympics for herself. Still, after having had such a childhood I figure pursuing a swimming career is the only thing to make the hours of training and pain worthwhile in the end.

The other thing is was a bit disappointed about was her message. I hadn't heard of Yusra Mardini before reading this book and obviously she inspired a lot of people, I just feel that 'refugees are normal people' is a bit vapid. What does she want? Shall we take on more refugees? Send them back to their countries? End the war? (obviously yes) Maybe she made this clear in her speeches, I just wish she said so plainly in the book.

Coming in late to the discussion, after all the great points others have already made, I could add that I particularly appreciated a subtle spiritual dimension Yusra allowed to transpire in the story. How she can be at once a fully present human with all human dimensions of frustration and excitement, joy and anger, power and powerlessness, and yet nod to a purpose bigger than herself, an internal compass beyond her ego ("ego" here as in "personality").

A quote from the book to illustrate: " 'Nothing is easy except what you have made easy', I mutter. 'If you wish, you can make the difficult easy. Please God, make my race easy.' "

I also appreciated her take on the Muslim faith, de-mystifying yet connected. Speaking as an outsider, I think the Muslim faith gets so much bad rep in its treatment of women. In my opinion, one the great merits of the book is to bring down the stereotypes popular culture tags Muslim women with. I admired her parents for that, and I was impressed with her father's capacity for instilling relentlessness and self-reliance. Yes, his tutoring style can be hard to swallow from a Western perspective. I winced at it. But in light of the cultural standards for the place of women in local society, my take on it is that he was intent on compensating - perhaps overcompensating - the trends and barriers his daughters path would bring them. I believe the harshness of his resilient spirit revealed itself when his daughters fought for their survival, and won.

Another quote from the book to illustrate: "It's not that I don't care. It's just easier to laugh than to cry. If I cry, I'll cry alone. But if we laugh, we can do it together. I guess no one knows how strong they can be until it's their turn to deal with tragedy".

In regard to what has been commented as a bland style, I read it as a plus rather than a minor. The directness of the telling allowed for lots of intense details to be fleshed out, from a teenager perspective, without sentimentalism. When the story arches towards politics and mission, the integrity of her style made me trust her. She was not out maneuvering to sell me an idea, nor had she built on the narrative to gain momentum. That was the story, as it was. I suspect we as readers are coming from a place of having digested a lot of professional, market-oriented writing produced with much input from publisher's eye on niches. Yusra's memoir didn't bring that flavor to me (although that surely lurches somewhere within the book deal). Hers is an authentic voice, culturally speaking, clear and direct as her background's style of communication. There is not much to miss in translation, it will keep its whole wherever it goes. I myself speak English as a second language and did some writing work with the help of editors and whatnots. In my experience, it is a big challenge to hold on to the authorship of the work, to have it being my voice, accent and everything, when people with much higher command of the proficiency tools have a say. I can only imagine, with the tenacity of her character, what she must have gone through to preserve her voice, to be able to look at it after however much back-and-forth and still say "I wrote this".

Once again I am grateful for OSS; I wouldn't have known about this book with your work. It was quick to get it from the library, and a perfect summer reading. Big thanks, team!

I loved "Butterfly" so much that it prompted me to buy a book by Mimi Melkonian titled "Nightingales" with other Syrian refugees' stories. I found out about the book because the author came to talk at my school, Bergen Community College in Paramus, NJ, last night. It looks very interesting.

Lui wrote: "I just finished the book and I liked it, but I am also a bit disappointed. After having read all these great reviews here I expected more.

First, I nearly quit reading during the first chapter, w..."

Ana Paula wrote: "Coming in late to the discussion, after all the great points others have already made, I could add that I particularly appreciated a subtle spiritual dimension Yusra allowed to transpire in the sto..."

I agree with you Ana -- on all of your points! I appreciate being made aware of this book and I also appreciate that this is a young girl with English not as her first language. I appreciated her no-nonsense style of writing for those reasons. Thanks for mentioning that!