About Dark at the Crossing
Dark at the Crossing is a literary novel by Elliot Ackerman set along the border between Turkey and Syria during the Syrian Civil War. The story follows Haris Abadi, an Arab American searching for meaning, purpose, and belief amid the violence and dislocation of modern conflict.
Hoping to cross into Syria and join the fight against Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Haris instead finds himself stranded in Turkey after being robbed. There he is taken in by Amir, a charismatic Syrian refugee and former revolutionary, and Amir’s wife Daphne, whose grief and longing pull all three of them deeper into the moral uncertainty surrounding the war.
As Haris becomes increasingly entangled in their lives, questions of loyalty, faith, identity, and ideology begin to blur. Is he truly committed to the revolution, or simply searching for meaning in a life marked by frustration and loss?
Set against the backdrop of revolution, displacement, refugees, and political violence, Dark at the Crossing explores exile, belief, second chances, and the emotional consequences of war with compassion, urgency, and moral complexity.
A finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, the novel combines literary storytelling with geopolitical realism to examine the human dimensions of the Syrian conflict and the search for purpose at the edge of war.
