Review of Breeze, Gintsburg & Baynham (2022): Narrating Migrations from Africa and the Middle East

This review evaluates the book Narrating Migrations from Africa and the Middle East (2022), edited by Ruth Breeze, Sarali Gintsburg, and Mike Baynham, which fills a critical gap in migration studies by amplifying the voices of migrants through spatio-temporal narratives. The volume's strength lies in its focus on first-hand migration experiences from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), integrating sociological and literary theories such as Bakhtin’s chronotope and Epstein’s topochrone. However, the book's gender representation is uneven, with Middle Eastern female perspectives underrepresented compared to those from Sub- Saharan Africa, and non-binary perspectives entirely absent. The review also critiques the book's occasional cultural and religious generalizations concerning time and space.Despite these limitations, the volume’s innovative approach and emphasis on individual voices make it a vital contribution to migration studies, sociology, linguistics, and related fields.