Dark at the Crossing

September 26, 2016
The second novel from Ackerman (Green on Blue) presents a stark and multifaceted portrait of the civil war in Syria. After working as an interpreter for a Special Forces unit during the Iraq War in exchange for five years in America and citizenship for him and his sister, Iraq-born Haris Abadi travels to the Turkish border with Syria in hopes of joining the fight against President Bashar al-Assad’s repressive regime. But the border is closed. Then his American passport and possessions are stolen, and Haris is forced to remain in Gaziantep, Turkey. There, he finds shelter with Amir and Amir’s wife, Daphne—two Syrian refugees who fled their homeland after their daughter disappeared in a bomb blast that also destroyed their apartment building. The more time Haris spends with the couple, the more he learns about their past—Amir’s former ties to the revolution and Daphne’s fervent belief that their daughter is still alive. Haris’s quest for a cause to believe in takes a deadly turn when Daphne asks him to accompany her to Aleppo in secret to uncover what actually happened to her daughter. Flashbacks to Haris’s experiences during the Iraq War provide context and motive for his restless searching. Ackerman’s station in Istanbul, where he has covered the Syrian civil war since 2013—plus five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan—aptly inform this timely and unsettling novel. Agent: PJ Mark, Janklow & Nesbit Associates.

November 15, 2016
A timely novel about tension at the border between Turkey and Syria--and about the personal costs involved in trying to join the conflict in the Middle East.Although Haris Abadi was born in Iraq, he moved to the United States and became a citizen after the first Iraq War. When the novel begins, he has returned to the Middle East, fueled by restlessness and by a newfound idealism: he finds himself drawn to "the establishment of a free and democratic Syria," and this involves a commitment to remove Bashar al-Assad from power. So now, from a backwater town in southern Turkey, he's trying to get into Syria to fight with the Free Syrian Army. Unfortunately, the mysterious man who'd recruited him to fight (and with whom he's only communicated via email) is not being responsive. Haris is stopped unceremoniously at the border and informed that it's closed. This incident sets in motion the rest of Ackerman's narrative, for while the war in Syria remains close but abstract, the journey across the Turkish-Syrian border is immediate and problematic. He links up with Saied and Athid, two unsavory types who promise him safe passage, but they sell him out to the border guards, yet one more example of the difficulty and corruption Haris faces as he tries to cross the border. The drama intensifies when he meets up with Amir and Amir's beautiful wife, Daphne, who have lost a daughter in the fighting around Aleppo. While Amir tries to make arrangements (via strategic use of bribery) to ensure Haris' safe passage into Syria, Daphne faces a difficult decision: to remain with her husband or to stay with Haris on his quest to enter Syria and thus return to Aleppo. As he did in his first novel, Green on Blue (2015), former Marine and current Middle East scholar Ackerman explores territory familiar to him but uncharted to most of us. Ackerman humanizes a war fraught with tragedy and seemingly without resolution.

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Starred review from November 1, 2016
Iraqi American Haris is determined to fight with the Free Army in Syria. But unable to cross the Turkish border and then betrayed and robbed of his money and passport, he has no choice but to consider the offer of an interim job as a translator until he can hire a fixer to help him enter Syria. But when he does subsequently cross the border, it is with an unlikely companion: Daphne, his prospective employer's wife, who is desperate to find her missing daughter. As for Haris, he is simply desperate to fight even if it now means aligning himself with the Daesh (ISIS) forces. Readers learn what motivates him in a series of flashbacks to his erstwhile service as an interpreter for the Americans during the Iraq War. Ackerman (Green on Blue, 2015) has done a masterful job of creating a novel of ideas that invites thoughtful consideration of the folly and futility of war and the failure of idealism. The mood is somber, even bleak; the atmosphere one of aching emptiness. The text is beautifully written (crooked teeth run like a broken fence through a thicket; refugees' voices travel thick as a conspiracy ), and the rendering of the setting is superb. Dark at the Crossing makes a significant contribution to the literature of war.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2016

A much-decorated soldier who served five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Ackerman has been reporting on the Syrian civil war from Istanbul since 2013, and his debut novel, Green on Blue, received strong reviews last year. His second novel features Arab American Haris Abadi, in Turkey with the intent of crossing the border and joining the fight against Bashar al-Assad's regime. He is taken in by former Syrian revolutionary Amir, now a refugee, and his cultured wife, Daphne, whose anguished longing to return home compels Haris to examine his own reasons for having placed himself in the crosshairs.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2016

Arab American Haris Abadi is looking to define himself, to find a "cause" since his sister married into money and ceased to be his motivation. He chooses to go to Syria to fight the regime. Crossing from Turkey to Syria is difficult for anyone, but for Haris it becomes a nightmare. "Befriended" by Athid, who promises to guide him, he instead is robbed and beaten. Then he's taken in by a gang of boys--street peddlers, really--and is finally rescued by Amir, a charismatic Syrian refugee and ex-revolutionary whose beautiful wife, Daphne, also wishes to journey into Syria to locate a daughter believed dead by all but her. Bonded by their mutual interest in Syria, Daphne and Haris are determined to enter the country, and Amir has the wherewithal to make it happen. As it turns out, they contract the very same Athid as a guide. To say more would be to play spoiler, but the ending is deeply saddening, bitterly wistful, and highly ironic. VERDICT Here is a thriller, psychological fiction, political intrigue, and even a love story all wrapped into a stunningly realistic and sometimes horrifying package. Put Ackerman (Green on Blue) on the A-list. [See Prepub Alert, 7/11/16.]--Robert E. Brown, Oswego, NY

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2016

Arab American Haris Abadi is looking to define himself, to find a "cause" since his sister married into money and ceased to be his motivation. He chooses to go to Syria to fight the regime. Crossing from Turkey to Syria is difficult for anyone, but for Haris it becomes a nightmare. "Befriended" by Athid, who promises to guide him, he instead is robbed and beaten. Then he's taken in by a gang of boys--street peddlers, really--and is finally rescued by Amir, a charismatic Syrian refugee and ex-revolutionary whose beautiful wife, Daphne, also wishes to journey into Syria to locate a daughter believed dead by all but her. Bonded by their mutual interest in Syria, Daphne and Haris are determined to enter the country, and Amir has the wherewithal to make it happen. As it turns out, they contract the very same Athid as a guide. To say more would be to play spoiler, but the ending is deeply saddening, bitterly wistful, and highly ironic. VERDICT Here is a thriller, psychological fiction, political intrigue, and even a love story all wrapped into a stunningly realistic and sometimes horrifying package. Put Ackerman (Green on Blue) on the A-list. [See Prepub Alert, 7/11/16.]--Robert E. Brown, Oswego, NY

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.