Ghost Season: A Novel

A dynamic, beautifully orchestrated debut novel connecting five characters caught in the crosshairs of conflict on the Sudanese border.




A mysterious burnt corpse appears one morning in Saraaya, a remote border town between northern and southern Sudan. For five strangers on an NGO compound, the discovery foreshadows trouble to come. South Sudanese translator William connects the corpse to the sudden disappearance of cook Layla, with whom he’s fallen in love. Meanwhile, Sudanese American filmmaker Dena struggles to connect to her unfamiliar homeland, and white midwestern aid worker Alex finds his plans thwarted by a changing climate and looming civil war. Dancing between the adults is Mustafa, a clever, endearing twelve-year-old who schemes to rise out of poverty.




Amidst the paradoxes of identity, art, humanitarian aid, and a territory riven by conflict, these unforgettable characters must forge bonds stronger than blood, ethnicity, and nation. For readers of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Maaza Mengiste, Ghost Season is a gripping, vivid debut that announces Fatin Abbas as a powerful new voice in fiction.