Where is the Home?

Largely drawn from Andrei Ivanov's personal experience and observation while at Danish refugee camp Hanuman's Travels is a picaresque novel of illegal immigrants, friendship and a witty view of the immigrant crisis. Set in Denmark in 1990s, mostly in Jutland region—episodes moving in and out of refugee camps—we come across a world full of chaos, insecurity, escapade, fear of deportation and odd ways of living brewed in these circumstances. The protagonist Hanuman (of Indian Origin) with a gift of the gab is richly animated character and the narrator Yevgeny (of Estonian origin) has fair view of the world such that private and interpersonal obsession, tragedies, frenzy and musings are all obvious.

Hanuman and his partner Yevgeny are thoroughly disgusted, unable to understand the ways of the Danish cities and people, and they hate the risk of encountering authorities. But both of them don't want to return to their homeland in any case. The refugee camp—remotely located and socially estranged—they settle in is full of people in flux with different national identities and language, held by a hope to get asylum but very few earn the "Yes". The world inside the camp live by its own rules and soon Hanuman and Yevgeny adapt the ways. While legal proceeding for the asylum-seeker's case is slow and an allowance to live by is meager, Hanuman and Yevgeny do not submit to the authorities¹ and soon find ways to earn living, and of course for their hash, booze and brothel obsessions meanwhile harboring the dream to escape to Lolland.

1.       But, dear God, if the Danish could take one look into the asylum seeker's dreams. If only they could hear the roar of the asylum seeker's stream of consciousness. If only they knew how turbulent, how terrifying, that torrent was. Those waters were full of rocks and debris, they carried the asylum seeker' fears in suspension, and the silt pressed on their spleens. If only the Danish knew how badly their heads ached, then they would have forgiven them anything, anything at all, even petty theft.

The bickering and bantering of these two friends, whose dream to settle somewhere is ever fluctuating, animate the episodes of frenzy, fun and frustrations. We come across range of characters and their daily mundane rituals flowing over the pages, and these reflect the exact experience² and impressions of living in a refugee camp cut-off from family elsewhere and haunted by the ghost of xenophobia and deportation. Even the narrator falls into dreamy torpor of hopelessness and loneliness. 

2.       Every morning was the same, exactly the same. Like a rehearsal for the most excruciating play. Like the return of the same nightmare. Morning manifested itself in every bend of the corridor,… in every flush of the toilet. And it was always the same, down to the most tedious of details. It was so uniform that any sensation of progression through time evaporated

Repairing electronics from the junks, selling mediocre paintings or rotten meat, running telephone scams to car adventures buying hash or selling goods or even fooling an old man are few of the odd enterprise the characters pursue trying to make easy money. Their misadventures only give rise to crazy ideas so as to relish in smoke and booze. Killing time elsewhere for a while if they make enough the two friends return time and again for the favor of the camp dwellers, taking advantage of everything they can. The narrator often broods over these tireless quests and rejoice in slumbers, and often wants to submit but soon joins another venture with Hanuman. All the character's lives have rough edges, filled with personal dreams and tragedies. They have little time for nostalgic feeling or even for memories of their origin.

Amid the crisis, camp dwellers try out several options of stay and escape, even to neighboring countries. With lies, racial hatred, fake identities and extravagant tales, camp dwellers have developed new traits, mostly for the survival and security. With slangs and tightly packed twists and plots with mimetic style, humor and subtle political satire Hanuman's Travels develops anguish and crisis into a road misadventure or drama even. Nepalino, Potapov, Ivan, Svenaage and others characters represent the social or rather national outcasts. Bull chase, snake bite, drug-delirium, smell of fertilizers, bars and brothels, stealthy scams, little happiness to gather over survival... many stories coming together reaches the core of immigrant crisis and hardships of refugees. The story is not targeted on any nation in particular despite the Danish setting and rather speaks about the statelessness in a global sense.

Author: Andrei Ivanov

Translator: Matthew Hyde                                                             

Publisher: Vagabond Voices

Page Count: 426

Price: $ 15.58