“This is a slim book, but one that readers young and old won’t soon forget.” – Bookish
“Powerful.” – Time Magazine
“Slim, but essential. . . In its elevation of the pastoral and critique of a dark reality through the interplay of word and image, Sea Prayer calls to mind William Blake’s humanitarian ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience.’ The text’s minimalism complements London illustrator Dan Williams’ gorgeous watercolor and ink illustrations.” – San Francisco Chronicle
” ‘Sea Prayer’ will take your breath away with its simplicity and grace . . . I started digging into this short masterpiece. The world stopped . . . I carried it around for a month, reading it everywhere.” – The Florida Times-Union
“The book may be brief, but it is beautiful, poetic – a distillation of his strengths … It combines Hosseini’s multiple personae, as a wordsmith, as a father and even as a doctor.” – The Sunday Times Magazine
“Dan Williams’s watercolours are a haunting companion to the contemplative and poetic story of a father fleeing Syria with his son. Though considerably shorter than The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns or And the Mountains Echoed, it opens up as many powerful emotions about family, survival and childhood.” – The Guardian
“Khaled Hosseini’s newest book is as moving as any of his novels.”– Independent
“The book may be brief, but it is beautiful, poetic – a distillation of his strengths … It combines Hosseini’s multiple personae, as a wordsmith, as a father and even as a doctor.” – The Sunday Times Magazine
“This inspiring illustrated book is a testament to the fact that strength comes in many forms and that life is precious.”—PopSugar
“Sea Prayer provides an opportunity for parents to discuss the details of the Syrian Refugee Crisis with their children and to broach the topic of the very real uncertainty refugee families face when they are torn from their homes.” –Columbia Journal
“Sea Prayer is a remarkable response to the current refugee crisis happening in our world today . . . Hosseini’s story is a must-read for all people around the world.” – Signature-Reads
“Hosseini writes a tender and searching exploration of the forces that drive families to flee their countries and the terrible grief for all that is left behind. After reading this devastating story, you will never think about home, refugees, or family the same way again.” – Brightly
“Intensely moving . . . Powerfully evocative of the plight in which displaced populations find themselves . . . The book reads like an emotional gut-punch. . . It is impossible to read without feeling intense compassion for those—and there are thousands—whose lives resemble those of the characters in the book. Powerful.” – Kirkus, STARRED Review
“Hosseini’s story, aimed at readers of all ages, does not dwell on nightmarish fates; instead, its emotional power flows from the love of a father for his son . . . In Williams’s loosely stroked ink-and-wash spreads, the corals and greens of the Syrian countryside give way to war’s gray shadows and the sea’s blue hues. Expansive views of sky and water both temper the text’s emotional build and render the figures in them small and fragile. Together, the evocative illustrations and graceful, compelling prose make it clear that Marwan and his parents have no choice but to trust the sea.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED BOX Review
Praise for Khaled Hosseini:
“Mr. Hosseini’s narrative gifts have deepened over the years. . . . That Mr. Hosseini manages . . . to actually succeed in spinning his characters’ lives into a deeply affecting choral work is a testament both to his intimate knowledge of their inner lives, and to his power as an old-fashioned storyteller.” —The New York Times
“Hosseini’s writing makes our hearts ache, our stomachs clench, and our emotions reel. . . . Hosseini tells this saddest of stories in achingly beautiful prose through stunningly heroic characters whose spirits somehow grasp the dimmest rays of hope.” —USA Today
“Some writers, like Khaled Hosseini, know how to whisk rough moral fiber into something exquisite . . . over and over again, he takes complicated characters and roasts them slowly, forcing us to revise our judgments about them and to recognize the good in the bad and vice versa.” —The Washington Post
“Readers flocked to The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns because Hosseini so richly illuminated an unfamiliar world . . . the heartwarming closing pages [of And the Mountains Echoed] remind us why the author has attracted such an ardent following.” —The Boston Globe
“Hosseini’s work is uplifting, enlightening, universal.” —Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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