“A tense, moving novel about the meaning of home, the risks of exile, the power of nations, and the power of love.”
Kirkus
* LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE*
Exit West meets An American Marriage in this “breathtaking” and “evocative” novel about a young Syrian couple in the throes of new love …when a travel ban rips them apart on the eve of their son’s birth—from the author of the “absorbing page-turner” (People) The Girls at 17 Swann Street.
“A masterful story of tragedy and redemption, an entire history told through the prism of a single Syrian couple, beginning and ending with love.”
—Hala Alyan, award-winning author of Salt Houses and The Arsonists’ City
“Zgheib writes so lyrically about rootlessness, separation and a fierce longing for home that it makes the tragedy of war that much easier to bear.”
—Alka Joshi, New York Times bestselling author of The Henna Artist and The Secret Keeper of Jaipur
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 abroad. Hadi must fly back for the funeral. He leaves America, promising his wife that he’ll only be gone for a few days. On the day of his return, Sama is waiting for him at Boston airport. His plane lands, but Hadi never walks out of the Arrivals gate. He has been stopped, detained, and deported from the United States.
Separated by the travel ban, trapped in a timeless, nightmarish limbo on either side of the world, Sama and Hadi must fight for a way back to each other, and to the life they’d dreamed of together. But does that life exist anymore, or was it only an illusion?
Achingly intimate yet poignantly universal, No Land to Light On is the story of a family caught up in forces beyond their control, fighting for the freedom and home they found in one another. “No Land to Light On is poised to be one of the most important books you’ll read in 2022.”
Book clubs, readers, friends, discover the reading guide and behind-the-scenes author interview.