Book Review: Depart, Depart! by Sim Kern
TW: Transphobia, homophobia, antisemitism, trauma
Depart, Depart! by Sim Kern is a novella about disaster, survival, and trauma. Though that sounds heavy, Depart, Depart! keeps things moving at a brisk pace and the tension just high enough that you don’t become bogged down by the themes.
It follows Noah, a Jewish trans man who has been evacuated from his home during a hurricane, and while he stays in a shelter with other evacuees, he finds a small queer community, witnesses clashes and tension, and is haunted by the ghost of his great-grandfather Abe, who was a Holocaust survivor.
Anyone with experience of being a visible minority will immediately relate to Noah’s anxiety, being surrounded by strangers in all directions and unsure who is friendly and who is not. Many queers will also relate to his complex relationship with his family, when there’s still love but not understanding.
Meanwhile, his visions of Abe, as a young boy at the age he escaped the Holocaust, forces Noah to reflect on his Jewish identity and the generational trauma that forms his great-grandfather’s legacy. Through Noah’s eyes, we see a boy confronted with hate and violence at every corner, a little boy who lost his family, and through Noah’s memories we see a man who abandoned his family, who never escaped the shroud of his childhood.
I have a great appreciation for a writer that is willing to show us an imperfect victim, as Kern does with Abe. There are no excuses made for his actions, but we see how he was haunted, and how he now haunts Noah.
I should emphasise however, that it’s not all doom and gloom. Depart, Depart! clearly demonstrates the importance of community, whether that be bonds of blood or culture or through your queer found family.
Depart, Depart! is a fantastic little read, Sim Kern handles the difficult themes with a deft and sensitive hand. The characters felt so immediately real and by the end my heart had been broken and warmed times over. Please do pick this one up.
Review by Dai Baddley
