"Good novels should not answer questions," Elie Wiesel once said. "They should deepen the questions." After reading Cities of Refuge, one is left with the sense that human beings are much deeper, more complex and mysterious than they often appear to be. Michael Helm asks the big questions that weigh ordinary people down and bear them forward. And he does so in prose that could be called graceful.
Let me state simply that this is one of the finest books I have read in recent years. It interested me initially because so much of the book is set within the context of the world of refugees in the city of Toronto. This is a world I know well. However, it soon became clear to me that Cities of Refuge is about far more than refugees.
At first glance, the title seems to indicate that this is a work of non-fiction, a survey of those cities that have designated themselves as “cities of refuge,” open to refugees in need of protection. Several cities...
Mary Jo Leddy has lived and worked with refugees for 20 years. She is the author of several books and teaches theology at the University of Toronto. She is a senior fellow of Massey College.
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