DARK AT THE CROSSING by ELLIOT ACKERMAN (2017)

This timely novel centers itself on the border between Turkey and Syria. Haris Abadi, the protagonist, is an Iraqi-born American citizen whose idealism has prompted him to try to cross into Syria in order to join the fight for freedom against the regime of Bashar al-Asad. As he encounters barriers and betrayals, he begins to question his own motivations, feeling as he does that he is a citizen of nowhere. He is eventually joined in his quest to cross by a Syrian women who has fled her country but wishes to return to seek her lost daughter.

Dark at the Crossing is valuable in that it provided an insight into the plight of the Syrian people in a war that seems endless. Abadi's story, however, is more problematic. His motivations come across as muddled and he never seems to take on a real presence in the story. Perhaps the author intended that to be so to underscore his themes. Nevertheless, the result is that the book provides little emotional involvement.

Dark at the Crossing was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award. It is interesting on an informational level, but it was not a pleasurable read for me.