No Land to Light On by Yara Zgheib

☆☆☆☆☆
.ePUB, 197 pages
Expected Publication: 04 Jan 2022
By Atria Books

About The Book:
Hadi and Sama are a young Syrian couple flying high on a whirlwind love, dreaming up a life in the country that brought them together. She had come to Boston years before chasing dreams of a bigger life; he’d landed there as a sponsored refugee from a bloody civil war. Now, they are giddily awaiting the birth of their son, a boy whose native language would be freedom and belonging. When Sama is five months pregnant, Hadi’s father dies suddenly in Jordan, the night before his visa appointment at the embassy. Hadi flies back for the funeral, promising his wife that he’ll only be gone for a few days. On the day his flight is due to arrive in Boston, Sama is waiting for him at the airport, eager to bring him back home. But as the minutes and then hours pass, she continues to wait, unaware that Hadi has been stopped at the border and detained for questioning, trapped in a timeless, nightmarish limbo. Worlds apart, suspended between hope and disillusion as hours become days become weeks, Sama and Hadi yearn for a way back to each other, and to the life they’d dreamed up together. But does that life exist anymore, or was it only an illusion?

My Review:

Wall or not, I bang against it.

In this heartbreakingly beautiful story we are introduced to Hadi and Sama. Both are from Syria, Hadi fairly new to America. Hadi's father dies just before his visa interview and Hadi flies back for the funeral, leaving a pregnant Sama at home in Boston. During this time (2017 so we know what we're talking about without saying its name) the president of the United States signs executive order 13769, no one from many Arab countries are allowed to immigrate to the good old USA. Hadi is not allowed to enter the US and is forced to sign a form rescinding his visa and is then sent back to Syria with a stop over in Jordan.

Yara Zgheib's beautiful writing sucked me in right away and the story kept me there. As sad as this book was there were many joyful moments as well. We learn how this loving couple met, we get a bit of background on both and of course there is the birth of their baby. It was a nice touch the way the book told the story from both points of view, neither had it an easy time of it. Even though immigration was a political hot topic for the former guy I didn't find this book to come from a political standpoint, it was such a personal story and I appreciated that. I am a born and raised Canadian and was deported from the USA in 2008 because my visa expired five days previously. I had to leave my husband there (he's an American) even though we were married we had to start the whole process over again and it took such a long time, 14 months...My marriage didn't survive. This book really moved me and is deserving of All. The. Stars.

Disclosure:
With many thanks to NetGalley, Yara Zgheib and Atria Books for the giving of the ARC.

#NetGalley