Sea Prayer (2018) by Khaled Hosseini is a short graphic letter from a father to his son as they flee Syria. It follows the unnamed father’s memories of home in Syria as he prays for his son’s safety. Combining poetry, watercolor illustrations, and vivid storytelling, this book defies easy genres. While a graphic novel, the book plays with pages that are both empty of images or empty of text. The text takes the form of both a letter and stanzas of poetry. Hosseini is known for his novels, and this poetic departure builds on his work with the United Nations where he is a Goodwill Ambassador for the UNHCR or the United Nations Refugee Agency. In collaboration with the UNHCR and his own foundation, Hosseini donated the proceeds of Sea Prayer to lifesaving relief efforts for refugees around the globe. While set in the city of Homs in Syria and directly addressing the dangers faced by those about to journey over the Mediterranean to Europe, Hosseini dedicates the book to all refugees who died at sea.

Hosseini was born in 1965 in Kabul, Afghanistan, and throughout his life, his family relocated due to his father’s career as a diplomat, though they eventually settled in Paris. Their return to Afghanistan was halted by political turmoil in 1980, and with his family, Khaled Hosseini was granted political asylum in the United States. Known for his novels such as the award winning The Kite Runner (2003), his previous books all center around Afghanistan. Hosseini’s childhood home of Kabul features in all three novels, and within his literary and professional life he grapples with the circumstances of his family’s escape from Afghanistan. Focusing on themes of family, generations, and loss, Sea Prayer continues to explore these ideas.

This study guide explores the Bloomsbury Publishing edition illustrated by Dan Williams and published in both print and e-book in 2018.

Content Warning: The source material deals with death, war, war crimes, and the refugee crisis as well as the resulting xenophobia of Western countries. Descriptions of violence and grief feature prominently.

Plot Summary

The structure of this short graphic novel is a letter to Marwan from his father. Beginning as a retelling of memories, Marwan’s father recalls the Homs that he grew up in and that Marwan experienced but cannot remember. It is clear from the simple past tense in which settings and memories are described that this version of Homs is no longer there.

Rich details of the city and its inhabitants seep into the narrator’s memories, but even more details are shown in the often-juxtaposing illustrations. The early pages describing the grandfather’s farmhouse outside of Homs are filled with variations of greens and yellows. The scenes of nature slowly include more detail such as an animal or walking figures. While Marwan is the only named character, the population of the beach or of Homs are on the peripherals of the story. The father starts to address the boy more directly, lamenting how the boy has forgotten these places the father remembers so well. The father then describes the busier city centers, now captured in warmer reds and pinks.

After detailing memories in which Marwan was present but not old enough to remember, the narrator then transitions into a time that Marwan does remember. This brings the narrative closer to the rise of the Syrian civil war, and the illustrations take a strong visual turn, depicting long lines of protest, violence, and destruction in strong blues, grays, and blacks before shifting to a majority of tones of brown. This is when the father acknowledges that this is the life Marwan remembers. Still, he persists in detailing the qualities of Marwan that he perceives as special.

The figures travel from the lower left to the upper right hand corner of the spread pages. Rather than landscapes or objects, the illustrations frame the human protagonists. The father describes the scene taking place in the present moment; they are on a beach with others near them, and Marwan’s mother is missing. One of few outside voices, the mother is quoted directly next to an illustration of, presumably, the father holding Marwan close. The mother’s words are a kindness that opposes the previous pages of worries and concerns over what the father has heard. The large groups of those waiting at the beach and the unnamed criticisms on this dark page are opposed by the mother’s reassurances. The figures grow detailed enough to have faces as the father joins the mother in reassuring Marwan.

The boat shrinks into the distance of the dark moody sea. The pages are full of illustrations and the figures retreat again into smaller implied shapes. The narrator’s letter to Marwan becomes more of a prayer. The hope for Marwan’s safety is the only thing that the narrator imagines. The story ends on an ambiguous note without resolution.

Separated from the illustrations, the author includes a final note on the real life inspiration for the story, Alan Kurdi, who died making that same journey across the Mediterranean sea.