First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday: A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea by Melissa Fleming

First Chapter Tuesday is hosted every Tuesday by Diane over at Bibiophile by the Sea. Join the fun by making your own post and linking up over at Diane's blog, or simple check it out to find more new books to read!

A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea by Melissa Fleming

ONE

A Childhood in Syria

"The second time Doaa nearly drowned, she was adrift in the center of a hostile sea that had just swallowed the man she loved. She was so cold she couldn’t feel her feet, and so thirsty her tongue had swollen in her mouth. She was so overcome with grief that if not for the two tiny baby girls in her arms, barely alive, she would have let the sea consume her. No land was in sight. Just debris from the shipwreck, a few other survivors praying for rescue, and dozens of bloated, floating corpses.

Thirteen years earlier, a small lake, rather than the vast ocean, had almost taken her, and that time Doaa’s family was there to save her. She was six years old and the only one in her family who’d refused to learn to swim. She was terrified of the water; just the sight of it filled her with dread."

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this book a few weeks ago and am finally (hopefully) going to be getting around to it within the next week or so! I have quite a few books that I plan to read soon, so I'm not completely sure what order I will be reading them, but I plan to make this one a priority. A bit more background: this book tells the story of a Syrian refugee, Doaa Al Zamel, as she flees from Syria to Egypt and eventually to Europe.  

What do you think? Would you keep reading? (And feel free to join in and make your own post!) 

If you're enticed by this chapter, be sure to check out the full synopsis on Goodreads!

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*Excerpt taken from the novel itself; I do not claim to own any part of the excerpt.