Sadie Kaye
A soaring debut, Nifraz Rifaz’s novel Paper Plane took me on a gripping, turbulent flight into the psyche of Zed, a complex and compelling character coming to terms with unresolved trauma, and with his place in the world.
The comforting ritual of folding paper is a rite of passage, symbolizing the delicate balance between fragility and strength in life and flight. Life is a series of fight or flight choices and sometimes we have to run away to find our way home. Every fold tells a deeply resonant story of hopes and dreams torn apart and relaunched.
The novel glides through a mackerel sky of love and lies, nostalgia and trauma, grief and growth, hope and redemption. Rifaz’s startling gift as a writer is to make the heaviest of emotions feel miraculously airborne without sacrificing their weight. The result is a poignant, beautifully crafted narrative that elevates and uplifts. Even a paper plane can take you places you’ve never been or dreamed of.
Paper Plane is a heartfelt exploration of the delicate art of letting go. Hauntingly humane and emotionally liberating, it’s a story about the resilience of the human spirit that transcends time and place. Poignant, incisive, witty, and elegantly weaved together, it captivated me from the opening line to the gripping conclusion.
Rifaz’s mastery lies not only in the poetry of his evocative prose, but in the subtlety with which he weaves together the personal and the political. Sri Lanka is brought to life in gut-punching, heart-stopping ways that maximize suspense, with its vivid landscapes and underlying tensions adding texture and urgency to Zed’s journey and highlighting the universal struggle to find meaning amid chaos. Each supporting character is finely drawn, their relationships with Zed revealing layers of grief, vulnerability, and the need to belong.
Paper Plane wears its unflinching honesty and emotional intelligence like medals. Rifaz invites us to confront our own memories and fears, making Zed’s story intimate and relatable. The narrative’s pacing is pitch-perfect, alternating moments of quiet introspection with dramatic turns. As the story unfolds, Rifaz’s lyrical descriptions linger in my mind, offering windows of hope that light up the darkest passages.
Layered within the folds is the notion of the black box—a hidden repository of memory, trauma, and truth, quietly recording every ascent and descent of Zed’s emotional journey. Just as an aircraft’s black box is designed to survive catastrophe and reveal the story behind the turbulence, Zed carries within him a resilient core that preserves his experiences, no matter how fragmented or chaotic his outward flight becomes. When life’s storms threaten to tear him apart, it’s this indestructible part of himself that prevails, aiding his investigation of the past and his path towards healing.
Zed’s life is marked by bouts of turbulence—sudden upheaval that threatens to knock him off course—yet, like a pilot, he learns to adapt, drawing strength from the unexpected tailwinds that propel him forward. The courageous act of charting a new course becomes an act of defiant bravery. It made me reflect that recovery from emotional trauma lies not just in reaching a destination, but in embracing the uncertainty. While we cannot escape the black boxes in our brains that secretly record our pain, we can choose to take flight again, trusting in our own capacity to soar through the unknown.
Paper Plane is more than a coming-of-age tale. It’s a meditation on healing, forgiveness, and the courage it takes to chart your own course. Nifraz Rifaz has crafted a debut that soared above my expectations, leaving me grounded in empathy and inspired by possibility.
Nifraz Rifaz’s Paper Plane can be ordered here.
Sadie Kaye is a broadcaster and journalist from Hong Kong. Her quirky podcasts, offbeat docs and humorous slots for RTHK have received nominations and awards from the Association for International Broadcasting, New York Festivals Radio Awards, On Air Fest and International Women’s Podcasting Awards. Her humour columns, rants, poems and ‘in conversation’ rambles have appeared in many Hong Kong newspapers, journals and anthologies. She’s a producer for Contro Vento Films and an ambassador for Mind HK.
Website: https://sadiekaye.tv; Instagram: @kayesadie; Facebook: @sadie.kaye
