I'll be honest, I don't remember much about the plot of this book, besides the fact that I kept reading to see what happened to the characters, and I was sad at every turn. I do remember that it was lovely, and that I learned a lot about Sudan. Abbas is a talented writer and I can't believe this is a debut.

This was a difficult book to really get engaged in. The story while interesting was hard to follow and didnt keep me wanting to come back to see what happens next. Before this I had not really given much thought to NGO and how they operate, navigate and engaged in the countries from which they do their work. It was an ok read.

At their best, books transport us to new times and places, lending us connection and understanding, rendering the unfamiliar a bit more familiar. For me, Ghost Season is a striking example of this phenomenon. Fatin Abbas’ literary fiction debut gives the reader a fascinating look at an America NGO caught in the middle of the Sudanese civil war.

Going in, I knew next to nothing about Sudan and found myself entranced by its setting – both in terms of geography and politics. I loved the initial premise of an inexperienced and overconfident American mapmaker confounded by Sudan’s extreme reversals in natural landscape and politics from season to season. I also appreciated the narrative arc of a queer Sudanese American filmmaker trying to connect with her foreign-feeling homeland. Yet my favorite characters were the locals— a translator, a cook, and an errand-boy – divided by heritage in the growing conflict and struggling to overcome these differences through their fierce love for one another.

Ghost Season is an atmospheric novel, with strong writing and great nuance. It took time to become immersed in the setting an the full cast of characters, but once I hit the halfway mark, I finished the book in a single night. Highly recommend to fans of literary fiction and armchair travelers.

Thank you to NetGalley, W.W. Norton & Company, and Fatin Abbas for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. Ghost Season is out now!

I really enjoyed the first half of Ghost Season. Dena and Alex come to Sudan from America for different reasons and find themselves in the middle of an escalating conflict. My favourite characters are the staff of the compound where they are staying: William, the translator, is an outsider in this border town, but has learned to fit in. Mustafa, sent away from his home to work at the age of nine, is now the errand boy who has bigger ambitions for himself. Layla isn’t a multilayered character, but as the object of William’s affection, she is important to the story.

Maybe I’m to blame for not loving the second half of the novel. I knew nothing about Sudan (other than its location) before reading this novel. It is based on a very violent chapter in the country’s history – not even the most violent – but had I known, I would not have been blindsided by the graphically depicted brutality that befell all of the main characters and a whole lot of anonymous, generic refugees fleeing the violence in the south.

I know that we learn from history, but as a reader I am not equipped to handle such traumatic stuff. It chips away at my will to live when I see/hear/read explicit details of the disgusting things humans do to each other.

GHOST SEASON by Fatin Abbas is an astonishingly good novel about five strangers whose lives rapidly become intertwined in an NGO compound in the Sudanese border town of Saraaya. Set during the Sudanese Civil War, an ominous tone pervades the narrative, though the characters themselves are bright rays of sunshine.

There’s Dena, a queer young Sudanese American college grad, back in Sudan to film a documentary. Alex is a typical white American NGO worker, bullheadedly pursuing a project to map the area despite brewing violence and shifting geographic lines. William is Alex’s translator and cultural broker, trying to prevent Alex from pissing off local security forces. Layla is the cook for the compound, while Mustafa is an enterprising boy who has managed to get himself hired to do odd jobs for William.

Abbas has crafted the emotional arc of this story with precision and restraint, doling out exactly enough information for the reader to understand the portent of various scenes, gestures, and exchanges. Her immersive prose evokes a tactile sense of place, and I fell in love with her vivid, flawed characters. Abbas skillfully and seamlessly zooms in and out from different perspectives to capture this moment in history as well as the heartfelt story of loss and hope.

This one hit home on a personal level. Having worked for NGOs in other parts of Africa, I recognized the cross-cultural tensions, the privilege of expats, and the insensitivity of Americans (myself) that Abbas so deftly portrays. On a sadder note, I worked on activism surrounding the genocide in Darfur in college, and the ruthless militias mentioned in this book are a grim foreboding of what is to come for the country.

Ultimately, this is a book about unlikely friendships, love against all odds, and war’s relentless havoc on ordinary people. It’s a beautifully written story that you won’t forget. I haven’t been taken for such an emotional ride in a long time. I absolutely loved GHOST SEASON and it’s definitely the book I’ll be recommending to everyone throughout 2023.

Thank you @netgalley @w.w.norton for the eARC. GHOST SEASON is out on January 10th, 2023, and I can’t wait for the world to read it!

The violence of the Sudan civil war divides communities and traps two US citizens in a demolished battle-torn village.

Ghost Season is a bit of an expository tale of the Sudanese Civil War, the main setting is at an NGO in a remote border village in Southern Sudan, where five strangers meet and their fates are forever altered. William, a local villager who works as a translator to the two Americans – Dena, an independent filmmaker of Sudanese origins, grapples with her identity and purpose, and Alex, a corporate sponsored cartographer, whose Western mannerisms, arrogance, and brashness offends the local officials with disastrous consequences. Rounding out the cast is Layla, the compound’s cook (and William’s love interest), and a local 12 year-old houseboy, Mustafa.

Although an act of violence occurs at the beginning of the novel, it takes a while for things to move. The first half explores character backgrounds and details the environmental impacts that climate change has on politics, regional trade, and tribal livelihood. Severe drought, dried wells/watering holes, evaporated lakes, and/or re-routed rivers force nomadic farmers to travel further north encroaching on designated government land to water and feed their cattle and themselves. These moves cause rebellions and armed reprisals leading to violence and death across the Northern and Southern regions, between the government and local tribesmen. Social, religious, and tribal customs are examined through Catholic William’s pursuit of Muslim Layla’s hand in marriage where disparities and tradition dictate the trajectory of their relationship.

While I found the writing solid enough, I found myself interested in the cultural and political aspects more than the characters and plot itself. Recommended for those who would like to learn more about Sudan and its challenges.

Thanks to W. W. Norton Company and NetGalley for the opportunity to review.