What readers think of Ghost Season, plus links to write your own review.

I cannot believe this book is the author's debut novel! It was precisely written with character development that enabled me to understand and be empathetic to all the main characters. I thought the technique of introducing the characters in the first section, and the country, government, and tribes in the second section of the novel was very effective in providing the background and understanding of what was to come. This is a story of the tragedy of war, the hope of love and acceptance, and the universality of the human experience.
Thank you to BookBrowse and W.W. Norton & Company for the advance reading copy.

Set in a border town between northern and southern Sudan at the center of the looming civil war, this astounding debut is told by a cast of five incredibly well-crafted protagonists. At an NGO compound, Sudanese-American documentarian Dena is filming scenes from daily life, and her keen eye contributes to the cinematic quality -- reading this novel often feels like watching a powerful movie. We have time to get to know twelve-year-old Mustafa, the entrepreneurial houseboy; William, the affable translator who has fallen in love with Layla, the nomad cook; and impatient Alex, the white American sent to the region to create a map of the fast-changing landscape. Then all hell breaks loose, and what lives are not lost are forever reconfigured.

In addition to the many lessons to be learned about the geopolitical power structure of Sudan in 2002, the novel is at heart a love story about families forged and found.

This well written book takes us through the development of relationships between 5 people from very different walks of life and how they come together. They are together to make a film, draw maps and find a path to a better way of life. All of this takes place while juggling the violence of civil war, long held tribal differences and taboos, corruption, greed and poverty.

Love blooms. Friendships form and tragedy hangs in the background

An important novel that teaches us about a world few of us can understand. It's engrossing, wonderfully descriptive and timely. Absolutely recommend.

"Ghost Season" by Fatin Abbas is a love story for the ages. This is the story of a man and a woman who come from opposing cultures in civil war torn Sudan and defy the unwritten rules of their birth communities to wed. It's also the story of the horrors of a civil war where one can so easily be imprisoned or worse for his race, and where even a trip to the market for food can be deadly. "Ghost Season" is beautifully written with clear and colorful descriptions of the people of Southern Sudan as well as their land and culture. The characters are vivid and well drawn and a few of them will live with me for a long time. I will not soon forget this eloquent story.

I became immersed in this book immediately and could not put it down. I was swept away by the compelling, varied, colorful, sometimes tortured cast of characters who are integrally connected by the war and political turmoil in the Sudan. A truly remarkable, unforgettable novel.

Ghost Season will grab you immediately with its five main sympathetic characters, four of them Black and one white, who eke out their lives in Sudan. I loved it for its raw honesty and grit in relating how each, though very different, intersects with the others in a dance of both hatred and love. The conclusion was unexpected and jarring, yet it was a fitting finale for these humble but shining characters. This book provides complete immersion with its unique setting and unusual cast.

Abbas has written an excellent first novel. Following five characters that live at an NGO compound in South Sudan in 2001, the diverse group of people include those born in Sudan, an American map maker, and a Sudanese American filmmaker. As a civil war is coming closer to this small town of Saraaya, the native Sudanese are being moved from their small shacks while trying to eek out some sort of living. The characters are well drawn; their relationships becoming entwined while they try to sort out what is going on around them. I was truly invested in the outcome of this satisfying story.

A sober story told with warmth and understanding.

When a burnt corpse is found outside of a NGO compound at a remote Sudanese border town where the current uneasy peace of the civil unrest always seems on the brink of collapse, the five people living/working inside the compound wonder what the future holds for them.

The strength of this book is the incisively and vividly written characters who are essentially strangers to each other but through events beyond their control will have to cross more borders than imposed national borders to survive a catastrophic event.

I appreciated how Sudanese history was beautifully woven in to the storyline providing for a strong sense of place which I enjoy in a historical storyline as the past is never far from the present.

This poignant story informs of the plight on the Sudanese people from the effects of colonialism, civil wars, and climate changes.