Marsh explores the challenges and resilience of refugees through the experiences of Ahmed. Marsh’s description of Ahmed’s grief, along with the ingenuity that allows him to survive in Brussels, reveals the reality of refugees’ lives: both the discrimination they face and resourcefulness they show in responding to it.

Despite having been on a harrowing journey and finding himself in a strange place where he doesn’t speak the language, Ahmed does his best to hold on to his own identity as a Muslim, a Syrian, and a lover of plants, soccer, and comic books. He does not just survive in the basement but makes an effort to decorate his space. Even as he gathers food and loose change from the Howards’ house, Ahmed keeps a strict record of what he uses and never goes upstairs until he is invited, near the end of the novel. Yet his trauma cannot be erased. Ahmed wants to remain hidden in the basement of the Howards’ house and forget his existence so that he does not have to face the trauma of his family dying, but Max’s empathy and compassion break down Ahmed’s walls and give him a chance to share his story and begin to heal.