No Land to Light On

September 1, 2021

Some years ago, Sama arrived in the United States from Syria, intent on achieving her big dreams. Hadi arrived later, a sponsored refugee from the relentless civil war in their homeland. Now they are married and expecting their first child, but when Hadi attends his father's funeral in Jordan, he's stopped at the border on his return home, and the lights start to dim ominously on the life they'd imagined together. From Fulbright scholar Zgheib, author of the popular debut novel The Girls at 17 Swann Street.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2021
Torn between homelands, immigrants yearn to be free. On Jan. 27, 2017, Donald Trump issued an executive order banning immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. Against that background, author Zgheib has created a tense, moving novel about the meaning of home, the risks of exile, the power of nations, and the power of love. Hadi Deeb, who has legal refugee status, is caught in the political maelstrom when, on Jan. 28, he lands in Boston after a brief visit to Syria for his father's funeral. Hadi's pregnant wife, Sama, waiting for him at Logan airport, is nearly trampled in the melee of protestors. In 2010, at the age of 17, Sama came to the U.S. to study anthropology at Harvard; in 2015, Hadi arrived, one among thousands of refugees escaping a devastating war in Syria. Sponsored by a Boston lawyer, Hadi was amazed at the sight of Harvard students walking, without fear, "on a campus in a parallel universe." Although sometimes disoriented and homesick, Hadi shared Sama's optimism about their future in the "Land of the Brave and Free!" Zgheib tracks back and forth in place and time as she recounts the circumstances that impel Sama and Hadi to leave Syria, the radiant days of their meeting and marriage, and their desperate efforts to be reunited after Hadi is refused entry. Punctuating the narrative are lyrical passages about bird migration--Sama's dissertation topic--that serve as obvious, yet still effective, metaphors for human experience. Most birds do not migrate, it seems, raising the question "of why some birds go at all." Of those that do, "it has been observed that birds feel a sort of pain before taking off, almost like fear, and that nothing alleviates that feeling except the rapid motion of wings." Many never reach their destination: Some, Zgheib sadly reveals, are poached by starving refugees. A graceful tale of imperiled lovers.

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November 15, 2021
Zgheib’s moving if unbalanced sophomore effort (after The Girls of 17 Swann Street) chronicles how a 2017 U.S. executive order to ban travelers from Muslim countries from entering the country affects a married couple. Hadi Deeb, who suffered torture and imprisonment under the shabiha militia during the Syrian civil war, is invited in 2015 to speak at Harvard University about his life. There, he meets student Sama Zayat, and they soon get married. Sama left Syria to further her education shortly before the war escalated, and her dreamy reminiscences differ from Hadi’s memories of the country’s destruction. After Hadi hears of his father’s ailing health, he flies to see him in Jordan, but upon his attempt to return home to Boston, he is deported from Logan Airport to Jordan. Alone, Sama reels with fear and prematurely delivers their son, Naseem, whose odds of living are fairly low. Sama ultimately must choose between her husband and her adopted country. Many of the details leading up to this moment are heartfelt, with lots of heavy drama, which makes Zgheib’s open-ended conclusion feel a bit discordant and unsatisfying. This leaves a strange taste, but for the most part readers will enjoy Zgheib’s story of hope and perseverance. Agent: Janet Silver, Aevitas Creative Management. (Jan.)Correction: An earlier version of this review misstated the country to which one of the characters was deported.

January 1, 2022
Sama and Hadi, refugees from Damascus and Douma, respectively, built a lean but comfortable life for themselves in America. Walking hand-in-hand along the cobblestone streets of Boston, stopping at parks to delight in the changing leaves, and marveling at the differences and similarities between America and Syria, they feel tied to each another and share both complicated feelings about leaving their families behind and hopes for the future. When President Trump's travel ban strands Hadi overseas shortly before Sama goes into labor with their first child, the future becomes a terrifying concept to contemplate. Jumping from past to present, Zgheib (The Girls at 17 Swann Street, 2019) depicts the complex and tenuous shared journey of two full-hearted individuals. As immigrants, Sama and Hadi ache for a better life but are heartsick about what they've left behind. Poetic and unflinchingly realistic, Zgheib's voice gives life to the story of a family determined to move forward together, no matter the cost. Fans of Paulette Jiles, Ethan Joella, and Wally Lamb will adore Zgheib's latest.

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Starred review from February 1, 2022

Zgheib's second novel (after The Girls at 17 Swann Street) is a story of immigrants and the toll exacted by the botched U.S. immigration policies. But most of all, it's a love story. Sama and Hadi, two Syrian �migr�s, meet in Boston and marry. Sama, who left her parents in Syria before the war's height, is on a student visa, researching bird migrations for her PhD. Hadi arrives as a documented refugee, but his legal status means nothing when he is apprehended at the airport as he returns from his father's funeral just as Executive Order 13769 (known as the "Muslim travel ban") is put in place. Sama, pregnant with their first child, gives birth prematurely. Sama and Hadi's story unfolds in a nonchronological, almost impressionistic style that mimics the confusion of the immigration experience. Zgheib's prose is sensory, piquant with the scent of spices even as it captures the sorrow of living in exile while war destroys your homeland. But the novel's real power is in humanizing the cruelties and injustices visited on migrants caught up in the travel ban. VERDICT Highly recommended.--Reba Leiding

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