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Dark at the Crossing
From the author of the acclaimed Green on Blue, a timely new novel of stunning humanity and tension: a contemporary love story set on the Turkish border with Syria.
Haris Abadi is a man in search of a cause. An Arab American with a conflicted past, he is now in Turkey, attempting to cross into Syria and join the fight against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. But he is robbed before he can make it, and is taken in by Amir, a charismatic Syrian refugee and former revolutionary, and Amir’s wife, Daphne, a sophisticated beauty haunted by grief. As it becomes clear that Daphne is also desperate to return to Syria, Haris’s choices become ever more wrenching: Whose side is he really on? Is he a true radical or simply an idealist? And will he be able to bring meaning to a life of increasing frustration and helplessness? Told with compassion and a deft hand, Dark at the Crossing is an exploration of loss, of second chances, and of why we choose to believe—a trenchantly observed novel of raw urgency and power.
Haris Abadi is a man in search of a cause. An Arab American with a conflicted past, he is now in Turkey, attempting to cross into Syria and join the fight against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. But he is robbed before he can make it, and is taken in by Amir, a charismatic Syrian refugee and former revolutionary, and Amir’s wife, Daphne, a sophisticated beauty haunted by grief. As it becomes clear that Daphne is also desperate to return to Syria, Haris’s choices become ever more wrenching: Whose side is he really on? Is he a true radical or simply an idealist? And will he be able to bring meaning to a life of increasing frustration and helplessness? Told with compassion and a deft hand, Dark at the Crossing is an exploration of loss, of second chances, and of why we choose to believe—a trenchantly observed novel of raw urgency and power.
237 pages, Hardcover
First published January 24, 2017
About the author
Elliot Ackerman
16 books626 followersELLIOT ACKERMAN is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Halcyon, 2034, Red Dress In Black and White, Waiting for Eden, Dark at the Crossing, and Green on Blue, as well as the memoir The Fifth Act: America’s End in Afghanistan, and Places and Names: On War, Revolution and Returning. His books have been nominated for the National Book Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal in both fiction and nonfiction, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize among others. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and Marine veteran who served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart. He divides his time between New York City and Washington, D.C.
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September 5, 2024
LA SOTTILE LINEA ROSSA
Installazione degli artisti Richard Barnes, Amanda Krugliak e Jason De Leon, realizzata con gli zainetti lasciati dai migranti.
Elliot Ackerman è stato un ufficiale nel corpo dei marine. Ha combattuto in Iraq e Afghanistan.
Appartiene a quella schiera di scrittori che in questo scorcio di terzo millennio ha tentato di tradurre in letteratura le guerre americane contemporanee. Non tutti sono soldati-scrittori, ma un buon numero sì.
Ackerman si differenzia dal gruppo perché riesce ad andare oltre l’autobiografico, e al di là del punto di vista americano.
Riesce a scrivere romanzi che parlano di guerra abbracciando la prospettiva di chi la fa e di chi la subisce, del militare e del civile. Il secondo aspetto rappresenta un risultato particolarmente alto e pregnante.
Riesce a scrivere romanzi evitando raid e pattugliamenti, scontri a fuoco, la tensione del combattimento, quel genere di pressione e paura.
Riesce a scrivere romanzi parlando di tanti e altri aspetti della guerra. Nel suo romanzo che ho letto in precedenza la storia si svolgeva in un ospedale: sul letto un corpo umano reduce dalle battaglie in Asia Minore, un essere umano ridotto a un ammasso di carne senza arti e con dubbia consapevolezza; accanto, sua moglie incinta.
Qui i protagonisti sono un iracheno con cittadinanza americana e una coppia di siriani, marito e moglie.
L’azione si svolge in Turchia nei pressi del confine con la Siria: Kilim e Antep da una parte, Azaz e Aleppo dall’altra.
Il primo ha ormai racimolato la dote per la sorella minore che sta per sposarsi, e dunque l’ha portata in salvo, in questo senso la sua missione è completata; è stufo di fare il guardiano tuttofare in un college del Michigan, ma è stufo anche di fare l’interprete per l’esercito americano in zona di guerra. Adesso vuole raggiungere la Siria e aggregarsi alle forza che combattono sia contro il regime del dittatore in carica Bashar al-Assad sia contro l’ISIS alias Daesh.
La coppia di siriani ha dovuto rinunciare ai progetti di vita con l’inizio della guerra civile: sono scappati dopo aver perso la figlia in un’esplosione e in Turchia si sono riconvertiti lei come infermiera e lui come collaboratore di organizzazioni umanitarie.
In questa zona di confine tra due nazioni musulmane, lo Stato islamico cerca di erigere il suo califfato e riportare tutto nel buio di secoli prima: e all’epoca in cui è ambientato il romanzo (2014) sembra la forza vincente.
E davvero il confine è come un crocevia attraversato da una parte all’altra da volontari, profughi, reclutatori, spie, operatori umanitari: ma anche avanti e indietro da semplici lavoratori giornalieri che cercano una paga più consistente in Turchia. O cercano semplicemente lavoro.
La guerra ha sconvolto tutto, raso al suolo case, ucciso amici genitori e figli. Ma sotto le bombe e le raffiche è spuntata un’altra economia, scorre un’altra forma di vita, più strisciante, ma sempre vitale. All’insegna dell’abitudine. Abitudine alla disperazione. Alla sofferenza.
Ma il confine tra vita e morte è sottile e Ackerman lo sa bene: il tempo di una raffica, del volo di una bomba.
La lingua di Ackerman è semplice, diretta, lineare, concreta, il suo narratore in terza persona non cerca picchi o voli: in un mondo di inganni dove anche la speranza si è ormai esaurita, non c’è motivo né spazio per il merletto e lo svolazzo.
Il suo approccio è non giudicante, volto a cercare luci e ombre sia nel bene che nel male. Sfumature. Chiaroscuro.
Assurdità.
La guerra non è mai giusta.
Installazione degli artisti Richard Barnes, Amanda Krugliak e Jason De Leon, realizzata con gli zainetti lasciati dai migranti.
Elliot Ackerman è stato un ufficiale nel corpo dei marine. Ha combattuto in Iraq e Afghanistan.
Appartiene a quella schiera di scrittori che in questo scorcio di terzo millennio ha tentato di tradurre in letteratura le guerre americane contemporanee. Non tutti sono soldati-scrittori, ma un buon numero sì.
Ackerman si differenzia dal gruppo perché riesce ad andare oltre l’autobiografico, e al di là del punto di vista americano.
Riesce a scrivere romanzi che parlano di guerra abbracciando la prospettiva di chi la fa e di chi la subisce, del militare e del civile. Il secondo aspetto rappresenta un risultato particolarmente alto e pregnante.
Riesce a scrivere romanzi evitando raid e pattugliamenti, scontri a fuoco, la tensione del combattimento, quel genere di pressione e paura.
Riesce a scrivere romanzi parlando di tanti e altri aspetti della guerra. Nel suo romanzo che ho letto in precedenza la storia si svolgeva in un ospedale: sul letto un corpo umano reduce dalle battaglie in Asia Minore, un essere umano ridotto a un ammasso di carne senza arti e con dubbia consapevolezza; accanto, sua moglie incinta.
Qui i protagonisti sono un iracheno con cittadinanza americana e una coppia di siriani, marito e moglie.
L’azione si svolge in Turchia nei pressi del confine con la Siria: Kilim e Antep da una parte, Azaz e Aleppo dall’altra.
Il primo ha ormai racimolato la dote per la sorella minore che sta per sposarsi, e dunque l’ha portata in salvo, in questo senso la sua missione è completata; è stufo di fare il guardiano tuttofare in un college del Michigan, ma è stufo anche di fare l’interprete per l’esercito americano in zona di guerra. Adesso vuole raggiungere la Siria e aggregarsi alle forza che combattono sia contro il regime del dittatore in carica Bashar al-Assad sia contro l’ISIS alias Daesh.
La coppia di siriani ha dovuto rinunciare ai progetti di vita con l’inizio della guerra civile: sono scappati dopo aver perso la figlia in un’esplosione e in Turchia si sono riconvertiti lei come infermiera e lui come collaboratore di organizzazioni umanitarie.
In questa zona di confine tra due nazioni musulmane, lo Stato islamico cerca di erigere il suo califfato e riportare tutto nel buio di secoli prima: e all’epoca in cui è ambientato il romanzo (2014) sembra la forza vincente.
E davvero il confine è come un crocevia attraversato da una parte all’altra da volontari, profughi, reclutatori, spie, operatori umanitari: ma anche avanti e indietro da semplici lavoratori giornalieri che cercano una paga più consistente in Turchia. O cercano semplicemente lavoro.
La guerra ha sconvolto tutto, raso al suolo case, ucciso amici genitori e figli. Ma sotto le bombe e le raffiche è spuntata un’altra economia, scorre un’altra forma di vita, più strisciante, ma sempre vitale. All’insegna dell’abitudine. Abitudine alla disperazione. Alla sofferenza.
Ma il confine tra vita e morte è sottile e Ackerman lo sa bene: il tempo di una raffica, del volo di una bomba.
La lingua di Ackerman è semplice, diretta, lineare, concreta, il suo narratore in terza persona non cerca picchi o voli: in un mondo di inganni dove anche la speranza si è ormai esaurita, non c’è motivo né spazio per il merletto e lo svolazzo.
Il suo approccio è non giudicante, volto a cercare luci e ombre sia nel bene che nel male. Sfumature. Chiaroscuro.
Assurdità.
La guerra non è mai giusta.
November 13, 2017
This was the only book from the National Book Award finalists for novel that I hadn't tried, so I sat and read this book this afternoon. It is about a man Haris, who is from Iraq, has achieved US citizenship, but is now trying to get into Syria from Turkey to fight against the regime. He ends up living along the border with refugees, where the story unfolds.
I feel like so much of the motivation of the main characters is never explained. Why would a person who has done everything to leave go fight against a regime that isn't impacting his own family? He is not particularly religious or zealous about anything.
On the other hand, there are some minor characters in the novel that really pop - Jim, who led the interrogations for the US army that Haris translated into English (in his past) and Marty, the American man-child who is starting an ice hockey team in the new Turkish settlement on the border. I was trying to figure out why these characters who are really only mentioned a few times felt like they had so much more energy than the characters filling more of the novel. It turns out the author served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he really had a grasp of how Americans living overseas, whether in the military or as contractors or entrepreneuers, would act and why. I'm not sure he really has drilled down to the same levels for the refugees and immigrants in this novel, and that is why I don't think it has as great of an impact as it could otherwise.
There is some commentary on war and grief that I found worth reading, such as, "...The fighting doesn't go on because of ideas. It goes on because of loss. If I was robbed of my daughter, I would be lost from this world. I'd take up arms and fight like a dead man alive, killing until I was killed."
I feel like so much of the motivation of the main characters is never explained. Why would a person who has done everything to leave go fight against a regime that isn't impacting his own family? He is not particularly religious or zealous about anything.
On the other hand, there are some minor characters in the novel that really pop - Jim, who led the interrogations for the US army that Haris translated into English (in his past) and Marty, the American man-child who is starting an ice hockey team in the new Turkish settlement on the border. I was trying to figure out why these characters who are really only mentioned a few times felt like they had so much more energy than the characters filling more of the novel. It turns out the author served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he really had a grasp of how Americans living overseas, whether in the military or as contractors or entrepreneuers, would act and why. I'm not sure he really has drilled down to the same levels for the refugees and immigrants in this novel, and that is why I don't think it has as great of an impact as it could otherwise.
There is some commentary on war and grief that I found worth reading, such as, "...The fighting doesn't go on because of ideas. It goes on because of loss. If I was robbed of my daughter, I would be lost from this world. I'd take up arms and fight like a dead man alive, killing until I was killed."
July 17, 2020
This is the first novelization I have read addressing the horror that is Syria today, and I would not have picked it if it hadn't been longlisted for the National Book Award. The author is a seasoned journalist as well as a former Marine, so his credentials are sound. He has managed to create a believable, original protagonist, conflicted and sympathetic, who chooses to go to fight for a cause he believes in and in doing so, meets characters well rounded and emblematic of the population of that ravaged part of the world. It seems a strange choice for the NBA, but it shed understanding and held my interest throughout.
October 13, 2017
There are a lot of themes in this book: the pointlessness of war, guilt over life choices that affect others, grief, religion and morality. Sometimes trying to do the right thing leads you nowhere. In short, this is a rather depressing book. Considering the subject matter, though, I felt the book lacked some depth. Audio narration was quite good, though.
September 20, 2017
Dark at the Crossing is the story of Haris Abadi. As an Iraqi he helped the US during the Iraq War as a translator and became US citizen. Now, he wants to enter Syria to fight for the Free Army against Bashar Al-Assad.
The novel plays out at the Turkish-Syrian border. Haris is robbed trying to cross into Syria and is taken in by Syrian refugees living in Antep, Turkey. The married couple, Daphne and Amir, lost their daughter in an explosion caused by the Free Syrian Army. They question his commitment to be a fighter, as they question the whole Syrian conflict. Who is fighting whom, and who exactly is doing the fighting?
Somehow, I don’t feel very strongly about this novel. I felt it did a good job of showing Haris as a conflicted person. He is conflicted about being an Arab, yet a naturalized US citizen. He felt the war in Iraq was unjust, and he did wrong to work with the Americans. In a way, he is trying to make up for it by joining the war in Syria. Yet I did not get emotionally drawn in. I wanted to feel the chaos, the tensions between the characters – some neutral and disheartened, some wanting to fight for the Free Army, some fighting for Daesh/ISIS – but it just wasn’t happening. The story had a lot of potential that was not used to its full effect. The saving grace for me was the ending, which (for me) came out of nowhere and really aptly addressed some of the central conflicts in the novel.
The novel plays out at the Turkish-Syrian border. Haris is robbed trying to cross into Syria and is taken in by Syrian refugees living in Antep, Turkey. The married couple, Daphne and Amir, lost their daughter in an explosion caused by the Free Syrian Army. They question his commitment to be a fighter, as they question the whole Syrian conflict. Who is fighting whom, and who exactly is doing the fighting?
Somehow, I don’t feel very strongly about this novel. I felt it did a good job of showing Haris as a conflicted person. He is conflicted about being an Arab, yet a naturalized US citizen. He felt the war in Iraq was unjust, and he did wrong to work with the Americans. In a way, he is trying to make up for it by joining the war in Syria. Yet I did not get emotionally drawn in. I wanted to feel the chaos, the tensions between the characters – some neutral and disheartened, some wanting to fight for the Free Army, some fighting for Daesh/ISIS – but it just wasn’t happening. The story had a lot of potential that was not used to its full effect. The saving grace for me was the ending, which (for me) came out of nowhere and really aptly addressed some of the central conflicts in the novel.
February 27, 2017
I was disappointed that this novel did not provide enough insight into the current struggles in the middle east. The story was, for me, quite shallow and uninteresting.
June 1, 2018
War unnerves people. And people raised in war-ravaged areas, from Bosnia and Serbia to America's inner-cities, often carry psychic scars. They've seen much — and often had to do much — in order to survive. That's the space Elliot Ackerman's "Dark at the Crossing" lives in.
The novel's main character, Haris, is an Iraqi-born American citizen who helped the Americans as a translator during the Iraq War. The war was exciting, action-packed and clear. There were friends and foes, and the foes will kill you given a chance. Simple.
That level of intensity leaves Haris feeling empty as he works as a janitor in Detroit to pay his sister's way through college. But now that she's graduated and about to be married, he feels rudderless. Filled with jaded idealism, he seeks to unseat Assad n Syria, whom he sees as a murderous dictator. And while he has no Islamist tendencies, he flies to Turkey hoping to cross the border to fight Assad and the Russians, even if that means fighting for the repressive ISIS-aligned rebel forces whom he distrusts and even dislikes. But was the Arabic saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
The novel's main action revolves around Haris's efforts to cross the border from Turkey into Syria. Along the way, he meets corrupt border guards and duplicitous ISIS (referred to as Daesh) mules and recruiters who foil his efforts.
However, he also meets allies. After a dramatic failure crossing, Haris meets Amir, an educated Syrian refugee working for an NGO who offers Haris a place to stay and a potential job with the NGO. And Amir introduces Haris to his wife Daphne, another allie, who works with refugees in a nearby hospital. Soon, Haris discovers that their marriage is strained by grief over a daughter lost to the Syrian civil war. Amir assumes she's dead, while Daphne clings with tenacious hope to her daughter is alive.
But the strain runs deeper than that. Amir cheats, and soon Daphne is seeking solace in Haris. But she also has larger aims. Like Haris, she too wants to cross back into Syria, but to find her daughter, not to fight. This odd alliance creates a love triangle of war-damaged people with particular resonance. It seamlessly bends erotic attraction with psychological motivation and socio-political realities into a captivating whole.
"Dark at the Crossing" tells a good story. However, it does take a LONG time to get going. The early going is rocky, with Haris flashing to his backstory, a huge part of his motivation, revolving around his friendship with a brutish, violent, almost inhumanly distant American soldier who is aware that military life in war-zones has damaged his soul. His idealism has melted under the whithering pop of gunfire and cries of the dying. I found Ackerman's alternating between "now-action" and backstory clumsy. It detracted from the forward action of the story. Sure, it illuminates Haris's motivations. But I've seen these things handled better, so found this a major structural flaw in the book.
All told, a book worthy of the National Book Award's finalist list. It's meditations on war, idealism and pragmatism are compelling. However, its structural flaws keep "Dark at the Crossing" it from the five-star categry. Alas, I'm giving it a four-star review.
The novel's main character, Haris, is an Iraqi-born American citizen who helped the Americans as a translator during the Iraq War. The war was exciting, action-packed and clear. There were friends and foes, and the foes will kill you given a chance. Simple.
That level of intensity leaves Haris feeling empty as he works as a janitor in Detroit to pay his sister's way through college. But now that she's graduated and about to be married, he feels rudderless. Filled with jaded idealism, he seeks to unseat Assad n Syria, whom he sees as a murderous dictator. And while he has no Islamist tendencies, he flies to Turkey hoping to cross the border to fight Assad and the Russians, even if that means fighting for the repressive ISIS-aligned rebel forces whom he distrusts and even dislikes. But was the Arabic saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
The novel's main action revolves around Haris's efforts to cross the border from Turkey into Syria. Along the way, he meets corrupt border guards and duplicitous ISIS (referred to as Daesh) mules and recruiters who foil his efforts.
However, he also meets allies. After a dramatic failure crossing, Haris meets Amir, an educated Syrian refugee working for an NGO who offers Haris a place to stay and a potential job with the NGO. And Amir introduces Haris to his wife Daphne, another allie, who works with refugees in a nearby hospital. Soon, Haris discovers that their marriage is strained by grief over a daughter lost to the Syrian civil war. Amir assumes she's dead, while Daphne clings with tenacious hope to her daughter is alive.
But the strain runs deeper than that. Amir cheats, and soon Daphne is seeking solace in Haris. But she also has larger aims. Like Haris, she too wants to cross back into Syria, but to find her daughter, not to fight. This odd alliance creates a love triangle of war-damaged people with particular resonance. It seamlessly bends erotic attraction with psychological motivation and socio-political realities into a captivating whole.
"Dark at the Crossing" tells a good story. However, it does take a LONG time to get going. The early going is rocky, with Haris flashing to his backstory, a huge part of his motivation, revolving around his friendship with a brutish, violent, almost inhumanly distant American soldier who is aware that military life in war-zones has damaged his soul. His idealism has melted under the whithering pop of gunfire and cries of the dying. I found Ackerman's alternating between "now-action" and backstory clumsy. It detracted from the forward action of the story. Sure, it illuminates Haris's motivations. But I've seen these things handled better, so found this a major structural flaw in the book.
All told, a book worthy of the National Book Award's finalist list. It's meditations on war, idealism and pragmatism are compelling. However, its structural flaws keep "Dark at the Crossing" it from the five-star categry. Alas, I'm giving it a four-star review.
October 25, 2017
With the exception of a few rough patches, this is a smooth, assured bit of writing. Amir's telling of The Story of Cause the Donkey is managed in language which is not very conversational, forcing the reader to hear Ackerman's voice instead of his character's. An earlier scene between Amir and Haris becomes confusing as an already-seated person sits down and, later, an already-standing character rises from the sofa. But the majority of scenes are evocative and well-constructed and the novel as a whole is powerful.
There is an immediacy about events, locales, and environment. Mood-setting is very well done. The reader is ushered front and center for the proceedings much of the time, especially at moments when various characters are suffering their privations. I found myself crawling through the filthy conduit with Athid and Haris as they cross beneath the barren Turkish fields. The basement of the refugee hospital now seems like a place I have actually visited. The apartment Daphne and Amir shared remains vivid in my mind. And the same is true for many scenes taking place in open spaces and rural haunts.
I especially love that Ackerman does not use his novel to preach a particular political viewpoint or to champion a facile ideology. We are shown quite plainly that War is Hell. There is no one here who is all noble or all nefarious. Well-intentioned Freedom Fighters cause the deaths of comrades while enraged jihadists sometimes refuse to kill the enemy. What first motivates a hero can morph into something almost villainous in nature. This author completed multiple tours of duty in the war-ravaged Middle East and somehow survived to tell us what he learned, clearly giving a lot of careful consideration once he was beyond the fray.
Phil Klay's "Redeployment" won a 2014 National Book Award but was not to my liking at all. In fact it was such a disappointment that I have avoided the contemporary literature of war since. I find "Dark At The Crossing" to be a much better read and am pleased it made its way onto this year's shortlist. It's good enough, in fact, to get me to re-open the door I had closed on this genre.
There is an immediacy about events, locales, and environment. Mood-setting is very well done. The reader is ushered front and center for the proceedings much of the time, especially at moments when various characters are suffering their privations. I found myself crawling through the filthy conduit with Athid and Haris as they cross beneath the barren Turkish fields. The basement of the refugee hospital now seems like a place I have actually visited. The apartment Daphne and Amir shared remains vivid in my mind. And the same is true for many scenes taking place in open spaces and rural haunts.
I especially love that Ackerman does not use his novel to preach a particular political viewpoint or to champion a facile ideology. We are shown quite plainly that War is Hell. There is no one here who is all noble or all nefarious. Well-intentioned Freedom Fighters cause the deaths of comrades while enraged jihadists sometimes refuse to kill the enemy. What first motivates a hero can morph into something almost villainous in nature. This author completed multiple tours of duty in the war-ravaged Middle East and somehow survived to tell us what he learned, clearly giving a lot of careful consideration once he was beyond the fray.
Phil Klay's "Redeployment" won a 2014 National Book Award but was not to my liking at all. In fact it was such a disappointment that I have avoided the contemporary literature of war since. I find "Dark At The Crossing" to be a much better read and am pleased it made its way onto this year's shortlist. It's good enough, in fact, to get me to re-open the door I had closed on this genre.
January 20, 2019
An Iraqi American attempts to cross into Syria to help fight in 2014, but the war isn't quite what he expected. He encounters a married couple who help him in his quest to cross, and the reader realizes nothing will ever be the same for these individuals who have been so deeply affected by war. you get a sense of the confusion and impersonal nature of war, and also to see how dislocation affects people in both the short term and long term. author nails the ending. I suspect this one will stay with me a long time.
November 6, 2017
I can’t remember having read a novel about the war in Syria prior to Dark at the Crossing. That might have something to do with the books I choose to read or it might be that Syria and the horrors of the civil war and the rise of ISIS remains the province of non-fiction authors. Whatever the case Dark at the Crossing is unlikely to be the final fictional word on the subject. This is a good thing because while it’s a solid novel, a good chunk of the narrative has less to do with what’s going on in Syria and more to do with Haris, his guilt over Iraq and his relationship with Daphne, the wife of Amir, who continues to believe that her daughter survived an explosion in Syria.
Haris’ relationship with Daphne could have been cut and pasted from any number of literary novels where our main character shags an unfulfilled married woman. It’s all a bit domestic, which is an odd thing to say about a book that deals with and recognises the refugee crisis in Turkey and the expansion of ISIS. Ironically, the best parts of Dark at the Crossing don’t actually take place in Syria / Turkey but are flashbacks to the Iraq war where Haris accidentally betrays a US soldier. With the domestic melodrama taking centre stage it’s a relief when, in the last third, Ackerman focuses back on Syria and Haris’ desire to fight against the regime. It all seems rushed and perfunctory though, and so the end – which I won’t spoil – lacks the gut punch I think it’s mean to deliver.
Dark at the Crossing is by no means a bad book and the flashbacks to Iraq are dramatic and tense. But as a story about a man looking to assuage his guilt by fighting a war he believes is just, Elliot Ackerman’s second novel left me wanting more.
You can find my full review here: http://mondyboy.com/?p=8556
Haris’ relationship with Daphne could have been cut and pasted from any number of literary novels where our main character shags an unfulfilled married woman. It’s all a bit domestic, which is an odd thing to say about a book that deals with and recognises the refugee crisis in Turkey and the expansion of ISIS. Ironically, the best parts of Dark at the Crossing don’t actually take place in Syria / Turkey but are flashbacks to the Iraq war where Haris accidentally betrays a US soldier. With the domestic melodrama taking centre stage it’s a relief when, in the last third, Ackerman focuses back on Syria and Haris’ desire to fight against the regime. It all seems rushed and perfunctory though, and so the end – which I won’t spoil – lacks the gut punch I think it’s mean to deliver.
Dark at the Crossing is by no means a bad book and the flashbacks to Iraq are dramatic and tense. But as a story about a man looking to assuage his guilt by fighting a war he believes is just, Elliot Ackerman’s second novel left me wanting more.
You can find my full review here: http://mondyboy.com/?p=8556
January 9, 2018
I had high expectations for this book. They were not met. Some good themes in here about war and recruitment (of both the US military and ISIS) about disenfranchised men and violence and lack of purpose. But the main character was annoying. The author doesn’t write women well. The plot was boring and the ending did not pay off. This book should have been devastating and it didn’t really make me feel anything.
February 10, 2017
Clearly this author was experienced in the vagaries and cruelty of war.As a former Marine who did 5 tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, he produces an authenticity that makes this novel ring. So timely, it explores the push and pull of individuals wanting to fight in the Syrian war, and the human consequences affecting the Syrian expatriates. Raw,real and so human..
September 23, 2017
I wouldn't be disappointed if this won the National Book Award.
January 6, 2018
Another exceptional novel from Ackerman. He really seems to get at what I feel are the visceral tragedies and paradoxes of war for all who are involved. Highly recommend!
June 7, 2018
Bleak and grim is one thing; bleak and grim and pointless is another--unless pointless is the very meta point?
October 3, 2017
This is the 6th of the 10 books on the 2017 NBA fiction longlist that I've read. It is the first without a strong family theme. The story is not what is important for this book. In fact, the story feels made up. But there is real value in this book. The core of this book is the war in Syria. The revolution - the Free Army - has been co-opted by right wing Islamists.
There are not many characters in this book. Haris, an Iraqi who was given American citizenship because of his work as an interpreter for American special forces in Iraq, wants to fight with the Free Army to free Syria from its dictator. His first attempt to cross the border fails when the Turkish border guards tell him the border is closed. His second attempt fails when the men he paid to get him across lead him into the hands of the same Turkish guards, who this time steal his passport and all his money. His third attempt also fails but you will need to read the book to find out how. Daphne and Amir are a well-off Syrian refugee couple. Both have advanced degrees. Amir works for an American named Marty who does research on Syria and the war for other countries. Amir and Daphne lost a daughter in Syria before they fled. Daphne refuses to believe the daughter is dead. Jamil is a young man - 14years old - who sells Amir information, rescues Haris after his second failed attempt, and joins Haris and Daphne on Haris' third attempt to cross the border.
Saied is the recruiter for the Free Army who convinced Haris to come fight. Athid is an Islamist. They "assist" Haris in his second and third attempts.
The last two important characters live in Haris's memories. The first is Jim, the Special Forces sergeant who "befriends" Haris, and Kareem, a young Iraqi boy, who Haris thinks Jim has treated poorly. Haris is haunted by Jim and Kareem.
Don't read this book expecting a well-told story. Read it and pay attention to the undertones of what war in the Middle East is doing to doing to people and to their lives. The author has credentials that give credence to what he is telling us on this point.
There are not many characters in this book. Haris, an Iraqi who was given American citizenship because of his work as an interpreter for American special forces in Iraq, wants to fight with the Free Army to free Syria from its dictator. His first attempt to cross the border fails when the Turkish border guards tell him the border is closed. His second attempt fails when the men he paid to get him across lead him into the hands of the same Turkish guards, who this time steal his passport and all his money. His third attempt also fails but you will need to read the book to find out how. Daphne and Amir are a well-off Syrian refugee couple. Both have advanced degrees. Amir works for an American named Marty who does research on Syria and the war for other countries. Amir and Daphne lost a daughter in Syria before they fled. Daphne refuses to believe the daughter is dead. Jamil is a young man - 14years old - who sells Amir information, rescues Haris after his second failed attempt, and joins Haris and Daphne on Haris' third attempt to cross the border.
Saied is the recruiter for the Free Army who convinced Haris to come fight. Athid is an Islamist. They "assist" Haris in his second and third attempts.
The last two important characters live in Haris's memories. The first is Jim, the Special Forces sergeant who "befriends" Haris, and Kareem, a young Iraqi boy, who Haris thinks Jim has treated poorly. Haris is haunted by Jim and Kareem.
Don't read this book expecting a well-told story. Read it and pay attention to the undertones of what war in the Middle East is doing to doing to people and to their lives. The author has credentials that give credence to what he is telling us on this point.
October 17, 2017
war is hell.
Always be suspicious of topical books, I suppose. I read this when it was shortlisted for the NBA because I thought I might learn something but I felt like the book was so actively trying to educate me that it was irritating. This is yet another book that suffers deeply from Movie Syndrome, where every single scene played out like imagines on a screen: he did this and then that and then that like a camera following behind an actor. It's a deeply visual book -- the light on Daphne's scarred back (like THE WINGS OF AN ANGEL i almost threw the book across the room), the piece of barley in the wind, the very blue sky over the single traffic light listing south, the POV withholding crucial visual details until the very end of the scene, but I'm not sure it uses that to any great effect. The narrative still felt like it had to explain every single thing, which in all likelihood a movie or tv show wouldn't have. Reading, I was a bit reminded of Casablanca, which it resembles only very slightly (in a different arrangement of characters) but more importantly how alive and human that movie is and how flat and empty this book is. I understood Haris, but I didn't care about him and his relationships with his sister, Daphne, and Jim all felt felt and under developed. His loyalty/infatuation with Jim and Daphne in particular never coalesced -- partly because both of those characters seemed more like cardboard cutouts of themes than characters with feelings (for me, this was easier to accept with Jim, than with Daphne, who is a classic sad beautiful woman, useful only as a fulcrum for Haris's never-ending navel gazing). Toward the end -- the big twist -- it felt like the author was trying to quickly tie everything up with full explanations of Big Ideas (the farmer and his family was egregious). Overall: flat characters, prose riddled with cliches, somewhat interesting setting.
Always be suspicious of topical books, I suppose. I read this when it was shortlisted for the NBA because I thought I might learn something but I felt like the book was so actively trying to educate me that it was irritating. This is yet another book that suffers deeply from Movie Syndrome, where every single scene played out like imagines on a screen: he did this and then that and then that like a camera following behind an actor. It's a deeply visual book -- the light on Daphne's scarred back (like THE WINGS OF AN ANGEL i almost threw the book across the room), the piece of barley in the wind, the very blue sky over the single traffic light listing south, the POV withholding crucial visual details until the very end of the scene, but I'm not sure it uses that to any great effect. The narrative still felt like it had to explain every single thing, which in all likelihood a movie or tv show wouldn't have. Reading, I was a bit reminded of Casablanca, which it resembles only very slightly (in a different arrangement of characters) but more importantly how alive and human that movie is and how flat and empty this book is. I understood Haris, but I didn't care about him and his relationships with his sister, Daphne, and Jim all felt felt and under developed. His loyalty/infatuation with Jim and Daphne in particular never coalesced -- partly because both of those characters seemed more like cardboard cutouts of themes than characters with feelings (for me, this was easier to accept with Jim, than with Daphne, who is a classic sad beautiful woman, useful only as a fulcrum for Haris's never-ending navel gazing). Toward the end -- the big twist -- it felt like the author was trying to quickly tie everything up with full explanations of Big Ideas (the farmer and his family was egregious). Overall: flat characters, prose riddled with cliches, somewhat interesting setting.
July 21, 2017
Having lived in Istanbul for more than seven years and having visited Gaziantep several times in 2013 and again this summer, I'd have to say that Ackerman's portrayal of life in Gaziantep during the early years of the war, as well as his treatment of Turkish names and places suggests a poor grasp of life here and the language. For example, he calls it "delvet" hospital over and over, but the correct term is "devlet" (state/state run).These would be excusable if the author was able to weave a believable story with well-developed characters, but he fell short for me in these categories as well, especially the Daphne character. Believable depictions of life as a translator for the US military in Iraq, though I am no expert on that!
December 19, 2017
3 stars. This book is worth reading not necessarily for its quality, but because it humanizes an important moment in current world events. Like Virgil in Dante's Inferno, protagonist Haris leads us back and forth over the Syrian border and introduces us to characters living in a variety of circumstances whose life courses have been altered by the civil war. It's moving and specific in a way that news reports are not. I recommend it for anyone interested in getting more insight into the conflict there.
July 16, 2018
I didn't realize until the endpages of this book that this author has some serious street-cred. The advantage is that he's very well-informed about the subject matter and he's the right person to set an example of empathy for readers who might otherwise be resistant to empathizing with the characters in this book. Besides all that, I thought it was a thought-provoking and compelling story, solidly written.
This would be a great book for highschool required reading.
This would be a great book for highschool required reading.
December 23, 2019
This story started to unfold way to slowly for me. None of the characters sparked my interest. DNF
March 1, 2019
Haris Abadi is a man in search of a cause. An Arab American with a conflicted past, he is now in Turkey, attempting to cross into Syria and join the fight against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. But he is robbed before he can make it, and is taken in by Amir, a charismatic Syrian refugee and former revolutionary, and Amir’s wife, Daphne, a sophisticated beauty haunted by grief. As it becomes clear that Daphne is also desperate to return to Syria, Haris’s choices become ever more wrenching: Whose side is he really on? Is he a true radical or simply an idealist? And will he be able to bring meaning to a life of increasing frustration and helplessness? Told with compassion and a deft hand, Dark at the Crossing is an exploration of loss, of second chances, and of why we choose to believe—a trenchantly observed novel of raw urgency and power.
May 28, 2018
War fiction is not my favorite genre for maybe the same reasons that war is not my favorite activity: monotony, repetition, dirt, sleeplessness, cold rain, wet clothes. In Dark at the Crossing, war is the fraught backdrop for a story of identity and purpose. Haris is an American who originally was an Iraqi fixer for American troops. At loose ends in the US, he comes to Syria to fight Assad. It's a fool's errand and full of banal mishaps and heartbreaking missteps.
May 28, 2021
The setting of this novel was very interesting and the author’s writing helped to create a vibrant backdrop. My favorite part of reading this book was visualizing all the places that the characters went. However, the women in this novel were only written to prop up the men and none of the other characters had any true depth to them. While the ending didn’t necessarily disappoint, it was so meta that this novel left me exactly the same as i was before i read it. Interesting read if you’re looking for something outside of your usual preferences, but there’s not much that will stick with you.
January 6, 2018
Gave me some insight into what's happening in Syria. But I don't know if I ever understood the main character's motivations.
November 3, 2023
Suprise ending, and not as compelling as Green or Blue… yet a window into the continuing horror of war.
January 26, 2018
I read this book and Exit West around the same time. While I liked Exit West, I loved this book. I'm surprised that even with its National Book Award nomination, this isn't getting the same buzz.
I thought the author's war and journalism experience really made this book wonderful - so realistic at times that reading felt like a physical experience. Both broad and personal its scope, I felt like I gained a new understanding of both the Iraq war and the Syrian war.
Get my full review here
I thought the author's war and journalism experience really made this book wonderful - so realistic at times that reading felt like a physical experience. Both broad and personal its scope, I felt like I gained a new understanding of both the Iraq war and the Syrian war.
Get my full review here
December 3, 2018
4.7ish. Ackerman is an author to be read with a mind to be explored. Dark at the Crossing is a big book in a few pages, the characters dirty, tangible, and sad.
January 4, 2018
The incredibly rich descriptions almost make up for the lack of forward momentum in the plot. Haris is a believable, yet never fully flushed out protagonist. The reader only catches glimpses of his Iraqi past and, while some may find this intriguing, I found it frustrating. Ackerman clearly has a great background knowledge of Middle Eastern politics, but it plays out poorly here. The ending was especially cliché, almost as if it belonged in a Blockbuster movie.
September 21, 2018
Didn’t like the writing. Hated the story.
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