Dark at the Crossing

Book excerpt: NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post • NPR • The Christian Science Monitor • Military Times • Vogue • Bloomberg Haris Abadi, a wayward Arab American with a conflicted past, has finally found his purpose: he will cross into Syria and join the fight against Bashar al-Assad’s oppressive regime. But before he can get there, he is robbed and abandoned on the Turkish side of the border. Fortunately for Haris, he is picked up by Amir, a charismatic revolutionary turned refugee. Amir’s wife, Daphne, is a beautiful, grief-stricken woman who shares Haris’s longing to make it into Syria—but for altogether different reasons. As he grows closer to the couple who rescued him, Haris must confront his own motivations and ask himself what kind of man—radical or idealist, hero or coward—he truly is.