No Land to Light On
No Land To Light On by Yara Zgheib
Reviewed by Mimi
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Thank you to @atlanticbooks for this copy!
Hadi and Sama are a Syrian couple building a new life in the US. They are expecting a baby when Hadi goes to Jordan following the death of his father, a shock to the family as they had been applying for visas to move to the US and escape the unrest of home. Disaster strikes as Hadi attempts to return to Boston. The ban on travellers from certain Muslim countries has been enacted by President Trump and Hadi cannot go back to his adopted home. Written in the two voices of Hadi and Sama you really feel the separation and pain of sudden instability from both sides.
In my opinion, books like these are incredibly important. They give voices and names to the statistics and give those of us who could never understand that experience, a small insight into the complete injustice of things like the travel ban. Fiction is an important part of our cultural fabric and novels like this one prove that.
It's a compelling read, of course, you have sympathy for the couple at the heart of it but the sheer anger and frustration if invoked surprised me. These characters were going through an almost impossible experience and it was written with tact and honesty. The only downside was that it felt a bit rushed but maybe that is the way to accurately demonstrate the experience. A solid read.
