Silvia Guzmán is a young woman who flees from an unnamed South American country to claim asylum in London. The novel describes the people she meets as she struggles to find safety and stability in a strange city – from fellow refugees, to police officers, to the city’s middle class.

Silvia’s inner life is rich and complex. She recalls her life in South America, the sights, the smells, the sounds. She loves music. She is from an eminent, politically-engaged family. She is also deeply traumatised by events in her own country. But when she comes to London, she is stripped of all that identity. People see only a refugee.

In a clever reversal, many of the London characters are caricatures. This is particularly true of the middle-class couple who take her in. Despite their supposed liberal credentials, they have no sense of who Silvia is and they make no effort to find out, treating her instead as cheap labour. The husband, Tom, is an exuberantly unpleasant character, a media-friendly author who writes about exploitation but is concerned only with his own interests.

The book was written in the 1990s but surprisingly little has changed. Silvia probably wouldn’t need to leave South America but there are plenty of other countries experiencing conflict and civil war. Life for refugees in London is probably even harder now than it is in the book. Breakfast TV is as awful as it ever was.

The book interweaves a number of themes linking the superficially different worlds of London and Silvia’s country. The author has successfully combined biting humour with a sensitive handling of some very dark events. While Tom can’t make the connection between global injustice and the people in his own home, the author certainly does.

I received a free ebook from the author in exchange for an honest review.