Harbor

by Lorraine Adams

Book Overview

A New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book Entertainment Weekly 's #1 Fiction Book of the Year A tremendously acclaimed and exquisitely realized novel of literary suspense, Harbor recounts the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 140004233X
• ISBN13: 9781400042333
• Release Date: August 2004
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.5" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

riveting and suspenseful

I loved this novel. Having lived in North Africa for several years, I didn't believe the novelist could pull this off, but she does-- the cultural and linguistic details are stunningly accurate. The novel is suspenseful and well-paced; I couldn't put it down. Adams does a great job showing how easy it is to misunderstand other cultures, and how, in the case of issues like terrorism, things are often not what they seem.

Riveting, but demanding

A riveting, thought-provoking book. Beautifully written, with excellent development of numerous characters. I was perversely sad to "leave" the bleak world of these immigrants when the novel was over. My only comment to those who haven't read it is that the book requires VERY close reading to get the most out of it. 2/3 of the way through, when I was eager to charge through to the climax, I realized that I was confusing some of the characters and/or had not retained necessary information about them. Some, but not all,of this is attributable to the fact that most of the characters had unfamiliar names. At one point, I was as confused as the FBI agents as to who was who --- Rafik, Ghazi, Kamal, etc. I went back and carefully re-read the first 2/3 and it was well worth it. I do have to say that the chapter where Aziz first joins the rebels in the army camp is extraordinarily difficult to follow, and could have been edited better for comprehension. I read it about 5 times very rigorously, trying to follow what was going on, and it remains very confusing. An extremely enjoyable novel that rewards the unusual effort that it demands from the reader.

Loved it

I was moved by this novel. I really liked Aziz, the main character, who is a good person who has accidentally lived through awful circumstances. I admire how the illegal (versus the legal) immigrants had to struggle to get to Boston, to live "underground" and live in basically an alien (to them) world. What strong people, to be able to work long hours, learn English on their own (no cushy ESL classes), and find friendship. I was disappointed to learn about the FBI trailing them, although it made sense. I wanted Aziz to succeed. I wanted Aziz to become a US citizen, because he's a good, hard-working person who deserves it. This is a view into a world that most natural-born Americans do not get to see. It's easy to scoff at people who are not like us, or to wish ill on illegal residents -- but this novel showed me that really, they are much like us and maybe they deserve our consideration.

An Illegal Alien Arriving Just Before 9/11.

As a first book, this is an impressive start. Few mysteries that I've read have been able to keep up with the changes going on in the world. With peace broken out between the U.S.S.R. and the rest of the world, you cannot use the KGB as the enemy any more. Here is a mystery, set in the United States but with the main character an illegal alien. Bewildered by the culture, a language he cannot speak, a world willing to take advantage of him and to use him for their own purposes. And life is going at least OK when the F.B.I. starts to get involved with suspicions of terrorism both his and our assumptions about what is going on suddenly get much more complex. This is especially true as we realize that this is the time leading up to the 9/11 attacks. I find myself wondering just how Ms. Adams was able to develop such an interesting and complete character from a culture (Algerian) so different than ours. I think we have a new major player in the fiction scene.

A must read

Harbor definitely works as the gripping story of an immigrant trying to survive in an unfamiliar society. But more importantly, this book beautifully and heartbreakingly describes the duality of individual existence...the difference between the way we perceive ourselves and our own actions vs. the way the outside world perceives us. The book has haunted me since the minute I finished it.