An incredibly important and beautiful novel!

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No land to light on follows the lives of married couple Sama and Hadi, refugees from Syria. A travel ban means Hadi gets stuck outside of the USA. Sama goes into early labour, can she be reunited with her husband?

I read this book so quickly I actually really surprised myself. The chapters are incredibly short which kept the pace up! The book swaps between Hadi and Sama’s points of view and different points in time. Once I got used to this, I really enjoyed it. It added so much depth to the story. There was the odd time when I struggled to relate to some of their behaviours/thoughts and was left feeling slightly confused. But overall, I saw the tales of real people within these characters and found it so moving.

This book really made me think and made me feel so emotional at times. It’s so important to bring awareness to these types of issues and how they affect people. My biggest issue with the book was the writing style. The sentences were so long and fluffy I found myself forgetting the whole point of the sentence to begin with. In the end I’d skip over the point, figuring it wouldn’t be necessary to follow the plot- I was right. I loved the story that this told and I think it is incredibly important. I’m just not completely sold on the way it was executed. The writing style just didn’t suit me as a reader. That being said, I think I could end up rereading this one day. It feels particularly pertinent and emotional right now!

I would recommend this to anyone who likes an emotional read that focuses on important topics! I want to thank Readers First, Allen & Unwin Publishers and Yara Zgheib for allowing me to read this book and give my personal thoughts.