“‘It has been observed that birds feel a sort of pain before taking off, almost like fear,”…perhaps fear,” he remarks to himself, “‘and that nothing alleviates that feeling except the rapid motion of wings.’”

W o w. No Land to Light On was one of my top reads of 2021, and for good reason.

Sama and Hadi are living the American dream, finally in a country where they were promised a story of freedom and becoming. Until one day, Sama is pregnant and waiting at the airport for Hadi to return from Jordan to bury his father… and the Muslim ban (Executive Order 13769) is put into place. Chaos erupts, leaving Sama panicked and trying to protect her growing baby in a crowd of protestors at the airport, and leaving Hadi detained and put back on a plane to Jordan. This story was heart-wrenching and beautiful at the same time, woven with news flashes, Sama’s research on migratory birds, and the emotional rollercoaster of Sama and Hadi’s lives in Syria and as immigrants in the US. The tragedy of the war in Syria and the Muslim ban are present-day tragedies that come to life through this story, and will leave you with a new sense of what freedom and home really mean.

Thank you to Atria books for this beautiful ARC.