In his final novel, Rainbow People, Nicholas
Mosley offers us the distinctly twenty-firstcentury
story of a holy family. A man, a
woman, and a child walk together along the
coast of the Mediterranean Sea, near the
border between Greece and Macedonia. They
watch as a film is made about the refugee
crisis on the beach. While the mother and
father, joined by the filmmaker, contemplate
the meaning of the crisis, the limited powers
of art, the greater powers of fear and faith, the
child explores, plays, and constantly
transforms before their eyes. Months later, the
family travels from their home in England to
Calais, France, where an enormous refugee
camp called “the Jungle” has sprung up. Here,
in this unlikely place, the child shows the
adults a graceful way to face the future.
Mosley’s Rainbow People is a masterful,
powerful book about borders, politics, and
hope.