Love Across Borders: Passports, Papers, and Romance in a Divided World

by Anna Lekas Miller Narrated by Anna Lekas Miller

Overview

With deep empathy, rigorous reporting, and the irresistible perspective of a true romantic, journalist Anna Lekas Miller spotlights couples around the world who confront frustrating immigration systems to be together-as she did to be with her husband.*¿

We are told that love conquers all, but what happens when you don't have the right passport?

Love *Across *Borders**takes *readers *through *contentious *frontiers *around *the *world, *from Turkey to Iraq, Syria to Greece, Mexico to the United States, to reveal the wide-spread *prejudicial *laws *intent *on *dividing *us. *Lekas *Miller *tells *her *own *gripping *story *of *meeting *Salem *Rizk, *in *Istanbul, *where *they were *both *reporting *on *the *Syrian *civil war. But when Turkey started cracking down on refugees, Salem, who is Syrian, wasn't allowed to stay there, nor could he safely return to Syria. He was a man without a country. So Lekas Miller had to decide her next move: she had an American passport but deep personal ties to the Middle East, and she knew it was unfair that Salem couldn't travel freely the way she could.

More important, she loved him. *Over *the *next *few *years, *as *they *navigated *Salem's *asylum *claims, *the *United *States' *Muslim *ban, *and *labyrinthine *regulations *in *several *different countries, *Lekas *Miller learned about-and naturally bonded with-other people whose spouses had been deported, *who *found *love *in *refugee *camps, whose *differing *immigration *statuses *caused *complicated *power *dynamics *and *financial *hardship *in *their *relationships *or *threatened *the *wellbeing *of their *children. *Here, *offering *a *uniquely *diverse, *international, and intimate look at the global immigration crisis, she collects and interweaves these *rich *love stories *with *a *fascinating *look *at *the *history *of *passports *(a *shockingly *recent institution), the legacy of colonialism, and the discriminatory laws shaping how people move through the world every day. *

Ultimately, she builds a powerful, moving case for a borderless society-one where she and Salem could move freely to be near family or back to the city that first let them fall in love, and where a border patrol agent can't keep anyone's love story from its happy ending.*

“A book designed to change minds and hearts. What are we fighting for, after all, if not a world where love can be truly free?” -Sarah Jaffe, author of*Work Won't Love You Back*and*Necessary Trouble

Editorial Reviews

AUGUST 2023 - AudioFile

Presenting this moving account of how immigration restrictions keep romantic partners apart, the author performs with gentle phrasing and clarity that make every sentence and narrative thread easy to absorb. The audio focuses on the author, a U.S. citizen with Middle East heritage who fell in love with a Syrian refugee and faced constant threats to their being together as they sought a country that would accept them both. But she also tells the stories of other migrant and refugee couples who are prevented from being together because of capricious border laws rooted in ethnic stereotypes, colonialism, and ethnic exploitation. Her personal journey and her accounts of past and present immigration injustices are served well by her cogent writing and vocal authenticity. T.W. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

Love Across Borders is a powerful and unforgettable testament to the humanity and love that prevail in spite of borders. This is a book that will make you weep, rage, and fight for the change our world deserves.”—Qian Julie Wang, author of the New York Times bestseller, Beautiful Country

“Anna Lekas Miller has achieved so much in this beautiful collection of love stories. Each account, including her own, is woven like a delicate tapestry, one that reveals the cruelty of borders and the resilience of the human spirit. With humor and historical context, Lekas Miller shows us that despite the inhumane divisions created by those in power, human beings will always find a way to love one another.”—Erika L. Sánchez, author of the New York Times bestseller, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter and Crying in the Bathroom

“A welcome counterpoint to headlines of war in the Middle East, Miller tells a love story.”—The Boston Globe, a Best Book of 2023

“This eye-opening account brings personal stories to the forefront of the international refugee crisis… Sometimes heartwarming, sometimes excruciating, these engrossing accounts are now documented by a woman who speaks for thousands of star-crossed lovers.”—Booklist, *starred review*

“A heartbreaking, beautifully written, and deeply personal exploration of the bloody reality of the border regime, and defiant triumph of love.”—Molly Crabapple, author of Drawing Blood and Brothers of the Gun (with Marwan Hisham)

"A beautiful, heartrending—and heartwarming—tour of the world through the eyes of its migrants that also deepened my understanding of the world of passports and visas, border walls and armed guards in which we all live today. It is a book about love in all its messy, imperfect realities, made all the richer by the author's willingness to be vulnerable about her own love story. And most of all, it is a book designed to change minds and hearts. What are we fighting for, after all, if not a world where love can be truly free? I'm looking forward to much more from this vibrant and necessary writer."—Sarah Jaffe, author of Work Won't Love You Back and Necessary Trouble

“Anyone interested in moving beyond the headlines to see the human face of immigration will find this book about the structural inequalities of cross-border relationships timely, thoughtful, and provocative. Eye-opening reading that ably blends the personal and the universal.”
 —Kirkus Reviews

"This is an impassioned nonfiction narrative that interweaves the author’s personal and professional lives to relate the hostile environment of a global migration crisis"—Library Journal

“Love Across Borders has the emotional rollercoaster of a romance novel, but all the love stories (and the heartache within) are all too real. An almost guaranteed tearjerker that will leave you more knowledgable—and more frustrated—than when you first picked it up.”
 —Jezebel

“Michelle Dowd’s youthful voice makes it easy for listeners to be transported… confidence and self-assurance fill her narration as she breaks free from the rigidity and abuse that have controlled her life”—Audiofile Magazine

“What makes Love Across Borders so compelling is how lovingly it is written. It is a book essentially about inequality that nevertheless reads like a romance novel in the best way. The love stories are rendered with such tenderness, with such kind attention to the small details of love — not just for the lover, but for family, for culture and country — that this alone serves to drive home the deeply unjust nature of the borders that separate our world.”—The Markaz Review

“Anna does a fantastic job of weaving together authentically romantic (not maudlin) stories that will pull at your heart and leave you smiling or crying…Very few books that I’ve read recently check the boxes of being original, sophisticated, and well-written. Love Across Borders checks all three.”—Austen Kocher

New York Times bestselling author Qian Julie Wang

Love Across Borders is a powerful and unforgettable testament to the humanity and love that prevail in spite of borders. This is a book that will make you weep, rage, and fight for the change our world deserves.”

New York Times bestselling author Erika L. Sánchez

With humor and historical context, Lekas Miller shows us that despite the inhumane divisions created by those in power, human beings will always find a way to love one another.”

Library Journal

05/01/2023

Amid roiling Middle East conflicts in 2015, Lebanese American journalist Miller met and fell in love with Syrian-born war correspondent Salem Rizk. Miller and Rizk's love story is the backdrop to sagas of myriad families and loved ones displaced and separated by war, chaos, and corruption. The book showcases migrants and refugees uprooted from homes who had to flee for their lives, but many found themselves without the right passport or documents. Blocked at borders, trapped in seemingly endless bureaucratic queues, or seeking smugglers to somewhere safer, their journeys show what escaping the violence of one's homeland looks like today. As the author details negotiating Rizk's U.S. asylum claims with Trump's Muslim ban and labyrinthine regulations in the UK and Europe, she exposes the pain and suffering of being divided by papers in a world rife with xenophobia, neofascism, and nationalistic domestic policies and politics. Miller calls for international border controls and immigration policies to yield to the fundamental human right to travel and to live together with loved ones. VERDICT This is an impassioned nonfiction narrative that interweaves the author's personal and professional lives to relate the hostile environment of a global migration crisis.—Thomas J. Davis

AUGUST 2023 - AudioFile

Presenting this moving account of how immigration restrictions keep romantic partners apart, the author performs with gentle phrasing and clarity that make every sentence and narrative thread easy to absorb. The audio focuses on the author, a U.S. citizen with Middle East heritage who fell in love with a Syrian refugee and faced constant threats to their being together as they sought a country that would accept them both. But she also tells the stories of other migrant and refugee couples who are prevented from being together because of capricious border laws rooted in ethnic stereotypes, colonialism, and ethnic exploitation. Her personal journey and her accounts of past and present immigration injustices are served well by her cogent writing and vocal authenticity. T.W. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2023-03-08
A freelance international correspondent examines the unique relationship challenges faced by couples with unequal passport and travel privileges.

When Lekas Miller fell in love with a Syrian photojournalist in Turkey, she never dreamed their relationship would force her to rethink the nature of citizenship. As an American, she could “breeze through passport control gates of airports around the world with barely a glance at my documents.” Her partner, Salem, could only visit 29 countries without a visa, and later, he was forced to confront the Trump administration’s infamous Muslim ban. Lekas Miller interweaves an account of overcoming border politics to marry with stories of how other couples fought the government policies that tore them apart. Just as sudden changes in Turkish policies toward Syrians forced Salem to be deported into Kurdish-controlled Iraq, unfair policies toward south-of-the-border immigrant workers forced an American named Cecilia to follow her husband back to Mexico after he was deported for not wearing a seat belt. In remembering the way the Muslim ban forbade Salem from following the author to the U.S., she tells of the trials faced by another couple from the Middle East. Amal, a woman still living in Yemen, and Mohammed, who had begun a life in New York, struggled to be together in the wake of Trump’s racist law. In order for them to be together, Mohammed had to go back to Yemen during wartime, marry Amal in secret, return to the U.S. to apply for her visa, and then wait for more than a year. Lekas Miller followed Salem to Iraq, where the two concocted a plan to live together and build documents needed to help them apply for an American spouse visa. Anyone interested in moving beyond the headlines to see the human face of immigration will find this book about the structural inequalities of cross-border relationships timely, thoughtful, and provocative.

Eye-opening reading that ably blends the personal and the universal.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176951745
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	06/06/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged

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