BOOK REVIEW OF THE YEAR OF NUMBERS, BY PAULINA WYRZYKOWSKI.

  ‘The Year of Numbers’ written by Paulina Wyrzykowski, a Canadian Polish writer, is one of the most spell-binding realities highlighting the interaction between aid workers and refugees. 

Here, the refugees have names, personalities, dreams and aspirations. The aid workers, with their goal to save, come face to face with individuals who have an acute sense of self awareness and a frightening level of stoic confidence. This of course, would shatter anyone with a saviour complex and a pitiful need for validation.

Paulina writes this unapologetic novel from her own experience working in Cairo and meeting the layers of life between Egyptians, the Sudanese Government and the thousands of displaced families searching for a place they can call home. Home is not just a safe space with a bed and food. It also includes religion, which is part of the defining identity of those searching for refuge.

In this novel, Genevieve, the protagonist from Canada, is in Egypt, and in 2004, with other U.N workers, navigates the journey of refugees fleeing their countries in crises, transiting through Egypt to Europe, Canada or the U.S. 

What she does not imagine is that her life would be caught up in a perilous, romantic and lustful relationship with Alpha, a Sierra Leonean living in Egypt, who’s passionate about social justice, even at the cost of his own life. It is important to compare and contrast his care for the refugees against institutional care. 

Genevieve and Alpha share a complicated bond; Genevieve with her openness and need to talk and share and Alpha, with his ability to control her with his carefully managed conversations and sex. It is complex, just like the work of aid workers is complex. 

The UN Organisations that document the experiences and quantify the damage, take on impossible tasks and yet these tasks must be complete, in order for someone’s pain to be justified in order to have them resettled. It is important work which opens psychological doors that will never close again.

Paulina lived in Uganda, where I met her, and in 2008 launched this novel, which has been on my bookshelf for 15 years. When I picked the book up this week, at the beginning of October 2023, the pages had stuck. And I am the one who became glued to every word and every page.

Paulina at her book launch-2008, Kampala.

‘The Year of Numbers,’ is a riveting, highly informative and engaging fictional novel, which should be taught in schools and universities.

It was published in 2008 by Seraphim Editions, Ontario and is available on Amazon.

Reviewed by Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva