Yara Zgheib

Exit West meets An American Marriage in this breathtaking and evocative novel about a young Syrian couple in the throes of new love, on the cusp of their bright future…when a travel ban rips them apart on the eve of their son’s birth—from the author of the “absorbing page-turner” (People) The Girls at 17 Swann Street. Hadi and Sama are a young Syrian couple flying high on a whirlwind love, dreaming up a life in the country that brought them together. She had come to Boston years before chasing dreams of a bigger life; he’d landed there as a sponsored refugee from a bloody civil war. Now, they are giddily awaiting the birth of their son, a boy whose native language would be freedom and belonging. When Sama is five months pregnant, Hadi’s father dies suddenly in Jordan, the night before his visa appointment at the embassy. Hadi flies back for the funeral, promising his wife that he’ll only be gone for a few days. On the day his flight is due to arrive in Boston, Sama is waiting for him at the airport, eager to bring him back home. But as the minutes and then hours pass, she continues to wait, unaware that Hadi has been stopped at the border and detained for questioning, trapped in a timeless, nightmarish limbo. Worlds apart, suspended between hope and disillusion as hours become days become weeks, Sama and Hadi yearn for a way back to each other, and to the life they’d dreamed up together. But does that life exist anymore, or was it only an illusion? Achingly intimate yet poignantly universal, No Land to Light On is the story of a family caught up in forces beyond their control, fighting for the freedom and home they found in one another.

A Novel

No Land to Light On

The Girls at 17 Swann Street

*A BookMovement Group Read* Yara Zgheib’s poetic and poignant debut novel is a haunting portrait of a young woman’s struggle with anorexia on an intimate journey to reclaim her life. The chocolate went first, then the cheese, the fries, the ice cream. The bread was more difficult, but if she could just lose a little more weight, perhaps she would make the soloists’ list. Perhaps if she were lighter, danced better, tried harder, she would be good enough. Perhaps if she just ran for one more mile, lost just one more pound. Anna Roux was a professional dancer who followed the man of her dreams from Paris to Missouri. There, alone with her biggest fears – imperfection, failure, loneliness – she spirals down anorexia and depression till she weighs a mere eighty-eight pounds. Forced to seek treatment, she is admitted as a patient at 17 Swann Street, a peach pink house where pale, fragile women with life-threatening eating disorders live. Women like Emm, the veteran; quiet Valerie; Julia, always hungry. Together, they must fight their diseases and face six meals a day. Every bite causes anxiety. Every flavor induces guilt. And every step Anna takes toward recovery will require strength, endurance, and the support of the girls at 17 Swann Street.

"Hadi and Sama are a young Syrian couple in the throes of new love, building a life in the country that brought them together. They'd met in Cambridge, Massachusetts: he, a shell-shocked refugee of a bloody civil war; she, a passionate dreamer who'd come to America years earlier in search of new horizons. Now, they giddily await the birth of their son, a boy whose native language would be freedom and belonging. When Sama is five months pregnant, Hadi's father dies, in Amman, the night before the embassy interview that would finally reunite Hadi with his parents and deliver them from a country in crisis. Hadi flies back to the Middle East for the funeral, promising he'll be gone only a few days. On the day his flight is due to arrive in Boston, Sama decides to surprise him at the airport, eager to scoop him up and bring him back home. She waits, and waits. There are protests at Logan airport, and Hadi never shows up. What Sama doesn't yet know is that Hadi has been stopped at the border. That he's been taken away for questioning, detained in a windowless, timeless, nightmarish limbo. She does not know about the travel ban, that his legal status in the U.S., which yesterday seemed rock solid, is now in jeopardy - and with it, the chance that he'll ever step foot on U.S. soil again. Amid the protests, Sama goes into premature labor; their son, Naseem, is born, too soon, his father nowhere to be found, the future they could almost taste wrenched from their grasp in a matter of hours. Worlds apart, suspended between hope and disillusion as hours become days become weeks, Sama and Hadi yearn for a way back to each other, and to the life they'd dreamed up together. But does that life exist anymore? Was it only ever an illusion? Achingly intimate yet poignantly universal, No Land to Light On is the story of a family caught on either side of a border, fighting for freedom and home, finding both in each other, and in the tenacious faith of creatures who take flight"--

In his short life, a seven-year-hundred-day-old prince left an unforgettable mark on every person he met. Through the memories of all who knew him, The Biography of a Little Prince narrates the triumphant life of this little boy who transformed the lives of so many others.The novel begins nineteen days after the prince's untimely death. His life is not told in a conventional, chronological manner; rather it is celebrated in a series of vignettes that swing back and forth in time to the gentle breeze of his accomplishments. Many of the memories are simple and sweet, like when the little boy prepared breakfast, taught his elders to blow bubble gum, and explained how to fly a kite to catch the prevailing winds. Others are more serious, like when the prince intervened to break up a fight between adults, called a family together to pray, and meditated on death with a maturity far beyond his young years.Heartfelt, honest, and enchanting, The Biography of a Little Prince is the story of a real little boy. To write the book, author Yara Zgheib drew on the experience of the most fascinating person she has ever met, her youngest brother Mikey. From watching him learn how to lace up his shoes to making pancake breakfasts and drawing air castles in the clouds, the seven years, hundred days she spent with her brother were the happiest times of her life. Through the novel, she hopes that readers can get to know and love him the same way she did. This isn't a book written for profit or personal gain but a labor of love that seeks to put the story of an exceptional young boy into the public record. “Trust me, this is one kid you cannot afford not to have in your life,” says Zgheib. From love to magic, friendships to family, this boy's story will have you rethinking life.

Yara Zgheib

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