The Marsh Birds has three parts. The first describes how Dhurgham, separated from his family while fleeing Iraq, survives in Damascus, picked up by a middle-aged man whose exploitation takes the guise of protection and love. The second describes how Dhurgham makes it to Australia on a rickety boat, then ends up in the limbo of detention as a failed asylum seeker.
The third part of The Marsh Birds is the only part that offers Dhurgham any possible future; he makes it to New Zealand as a refugee from Australia's detention system, and spends some time with a New Zealand family. But by this time, schooled to the brutal fact of what it means to be utterly alone, we are not surprised when the machinery of international relations crushes this small chance of happiness.
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