After seeing how Shirin gets treated, it is easy to see where her anger and defensiveness are born from. This autobiographical notion is particularly powerful throughout the novel as Mafi captures Shirin’s experiences with Islamophobia and xenophobia. Her aim for the novel was to capture the turbulent emotions that she felt during her teens and to put them into words. The story is based on an amalgamation of Mafi’s own experiences in high school. He is not like everyone else, but Shirin will have to let down her guard that she has spent her whole teens building up if she is to let him in.Ī Very Large Expanse Of Sea is a beautiful, heartbreaking novel. But then Shirin meets Ocean James, who is the first person who seems to really want to get to know her. She hides away, drowning her frustrations in music and break-dancing. As a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl, who wears hijab, Shirin has come to expect cruelty wherever she goes. It is the year after 9/11, and Shirin has just started at a new high school for the umpteenth time. Her first foray into the world of contemporary fiction, A Very Large Expanse Of Sea, follows Shirin. A Very Large Expanse Of Sea marks a departure for Tahereh Mafi, who is best known for her fantasy series, Shatter Me.
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