Omar El Akkad’s What Strange Paradise (2021) follows the haunting journey of a boat filled with refugees in search of a new home. What Strange Paradise implies several theoretical questions, chief amongst them being: What if the refugees had reached their destination? What type of home awaited them? Such questions, and many similar to them, find answers in Rawi Hage’s Cockroach (2008), a novel that depicts a refugee’s troubled life after successfully leaving their homeland. This article examines the relationship of the two novels surrounding the notions of “refugeedom” and “homeliness” …