This is a heartbreaking tear jerking story. The chapters are very short and this makes the book fast paced. This is a very emotional read. The writing style is not to my taste

No land to light on by Yara Zgheib

I read this book a wee while ago and although I have been slow to write a review it has really stuck with me. The story follows a young Syrian couple, Hadi and Sama who are refugees in America and are torn apart by the Trump’s travel ban which comes in to force while Hadi is at home for his father’s funeral.

This is a sad novel but it is beautifully written and makes the big issues really personal. Highly recommended.

Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalleyUK for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

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Any fan of historical fiction, or of a ripping good read will be beguiled by this book. Exquisite writing. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

A heartbreaking story sadly very much rooted in reality but with a hope that shines through, No Land to Light on is an honest, non-judgemental and human look at the refugee crisis.

The story follows two young Syrians, in the USA, with very different journeys.
Sama went there to study, on a scholarship, before there was a need to escape. Hadi was a refugee, and left his family behind to find a better future for himself. Despite their different backgrounds they met, and fell in love, and when we meet them in the novel they’re on the verge of welcoming their first baby, but when Hadi is detained at the airport after visiting his family back home, things start to go very wrong.
While he was somewhere over the ocean, on his way back to his wife, a travel ban has been put in place and a spiral of tragic events has put him in the worst place at the worst time.

The story flits between years - before deciding to leave Syria, getting settled in the USA, and back again, and slides effortlessly back and forth between Hadi’s voice and Sama’s.
This made it a quick and compelling read and it helped me to understand the plight that people go to just to live in a safe place.
As an immigrant myself I’ve known my fair share of bureaucracy but I was never treated as a criminal for being here. I’m very aware of the reality for some people but this book felt very real and important in sharing just a part of their stories.

Sama and Hadi may not be real but their experience is reality for so many people, and this is a great read for anyone who wants to understand more about a very sensitive situation
Written in a compassionate, sensitive manner.

I’m going to preface this review by saying that I think stories like these are so important to tell. Stories like Hadi and Sama’s are very real, where families are torn apart by war and borders, and in this case, Trump’s travel ban.

However, this book fell flat for me. The blurb mentions a “whirlwind romance” but instead, their romance is one of the “insta-love” trope which I personally don’t like. I was hoping to see more of a build up to their relationship so I could get invested in them as a couple. Instead, they were just kind of together and then not together and their interactions with one another weren’t anything special, note-worthy or memorable.

The writing style also felt a little bit all over the place. I enjoy stories with jumps in timeframe, but I didn’t enjoy the shift in narration, between first person and third person. I generally don’t like first person narration as I find it awkward to read, especially with Hadi’s parts. I understand his anger, but his narration came across as a bit juvenile and as the writing in the book was often flowery, his use of swear words made the writing seem disjointed.

The parts of the novel in third person narration, were beautiful and well-written - I wish the whole novel was wrote in this style.

Also, the snippets on bird migration and the metaphor that that carried was just a bit too on the nose.

A story important to tell and with a good message that ultimately fell short due to being all over the place stylistically and holds the readers hand a bit too much throughout.

What an incredibly sad, but beautifully written story. It's from two perspectives of two Syrian refugees falling in love in America (Hadi and Sama).
Hadi flies back for the funeral of his dad and consequently cannot get back into the US, where his wife Sama is pregnant.
Inspired by the actual insane policies that the US has, it is a tale of belonging and exclusion. What it means to build and have a home, to feel secure.
If you are ready with a box of tissues I highly recommend this story.

A quick and easy read that I found myself picking up after a long day to unwind. The characters are beautifully written and I came to love them within the first few pages and was rooting for them all the way to the end. At times I wanted to stop reading because I just wanted the experience to go on for longer.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Hadi and Sama are a married couple, refugees from Syria, and expectant parents to be who live in Boston. Hadi has to travel outside of the US for a funeral, but upon his return finds that Trump's travel ban has come into effect and he is denied entry into the US and sent on the first flight out. Sama, meanwhile, goes into early labour and is stuck on a hospital ward with her desperately ill child.

What could easily have become misery lit is elevated by Yara Zgheib's prose - at times urgent, at time melancholic, this is masterful writing. You really feel the frustration of Hadi, and the sorrow of Sama. These characters are expertly drawn.

This is an important novel, dealing with BIG themes, and yet it is intimate and personal. You will find yourself getting angry with the system alongside Hadi. You will wonder how a government could run such cruely, punatitve rules. You will come to care for the people at its heart. Highly recommend reading.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.