Dark at the Crossing

"A contemporary love story set on the Turkish/Syrian border that explores loss, resilience, and second chances.

Haris Abadi is a man in search of a cause. An Iraqi who once translated for the American troops in exchange for US citizenship for himself and his sister, Haris yearns to return to Turkey and cross into Syria and join the fight against Bashar al-Assad's regime. But he is robbed before he can make it, and is taken in by two Syrian refugees in Gaziantep – Amir, a former Syrian revolutionary and his wife, Daphne, beautiful and sophisticated but haunted by grief. After learning that their young daughter was left behind in Syria, Haris and Daphne's individual quests are brought together, and they find themselves hatching a new plan to cross the border…

Elliot Ackerman covered the Syrian Civil War for many years as a journalist, and has written a gripping, morally complex novel about the many lives intersecting on the border of Syria and Turkey, expertly capturing the brutality and pathos of a region caught in the frontlines of chaos and lawlessness.

Praise for

Green on Blue

'Harrowing, brutal, and utterly absorbing . . . Ackerman has spun a morally complex tale of revenge, loyalty, and brotherly love.' –

Khaled Hosseini

'Haunting . . . Powerful . . . a bone-deep understanding of the toll that a seemingly endless war has taken on ordinary Afghans who have known no other reality for decades.'

– Michiko Kakutani ,

New York Times

'In his deeply compelling and poetically rendered first novel, Elliot Ackerman goes where few, if any, Western novelists have gone before . . . one of the finest literary debuts I have ever witnessed.' –

Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog

'What makes Green on Blue so brilliantly poignant is Elliot Ackerman's feeling of empathy, his ability to get under his characters' skin, reminding us not only of our vast differences but of our shared humanity.' –

Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran A contemporary love story set on the Turkish/Syrian border that explores loss, resilience, and second chances.

Haris Abadi is a man in search of a cause. An Iraqi who once translated for the American troops in exchange for US citizenship for himself and his sister, Haris yearns to return to Turkey and cross into Syria and join the fight against Bashar al-Assad's regime. But he is robbed before he can make it, and is taken in by two Syrian refugees in Gaziantep – Amir, a former Syrian revolutionary and his wife, Daphne, beautiful and sophisticated but haunted by grief. After learning that their young daughter was left behind in Syria, Haris and Daphne's individual quests are brought together, and they find themselves hatching a new plan to cross the border…

Elliot Ackerman covered the Syrian Civil War for many years as a journalist, and has written a gripping, morally complex novel about the many lives intersecting on the border of Syria and Turkey, expertly capturing the brutality and pathos of a region caught in the frontlines of chaos and lawlessness.

Praise for Green on Blue

'Harrowing, brutal, and utterly absorbing . . . Ackerman has spun a morally complex tale of revenge, loyalty, and brotherly love.' – Khaled Hosseini

'Haunting . . . Powerful . . . a bone-deep understanding of the toll that a seemingly endless war has taken on ordinary Afghans who have known no other reality for decades.' – Michiko Kakutani , New York Times

'In his deeply compelling and poetically rendered first novel, Elliot Ackerman goes where few, if any, Western novelists have gone before . . . one of the finest literary debuts I have ever witnessed.' – Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog

'What makes Green on Blue so brilliantly poignant is Elliot Ackerman's feeling of empathy, his ability to get under his characters' skin, reminding us not only of our vast differences but of our shared humanity.