Six-year-old Niko Karaam has never known a life outside civil war. He rarely leaves his parents' small apartment, and from its small balcony he listens to the world outside tumble down one building at a time. But after a car bomb kills his pregnant mother, Niko is thrust into a much wider and confusing world without apartments or balconies, as he and his father Antoine embark upon the open seas on an impossible international adventure in search of a new place to call home. Throughout a twelve-year odyssey that leads them across seven countries, young Niko will have to choose between his swollen faith in an increasingly God-like and unreliable Antoine, and the pragmatic, hard-nosed alternatives that will ultimately lead to a better future.
Swiftly paced, poignantly moving, and beautifully imagined, Niko is the powerful epic story of what it takes to survive after war, of what to hold dear and what to leave behind in a world that won't let you have it all.

Dimitri Nasrallah was born in 1977, during the Lebanese civil war. In 1981,
his family went into exile, living in Athens, Kuwait, and Dubai before
immigrating to Canada in 1988. He received a Bachelor's degree from York
University in 2001, and then a Master's degree from Concordia University in
2003. He currently lives in Montreal. Apart from his creative work, he is a cultural critic whose writing has appeared
in national and international publications, including the Montreal Gazette,
Montreal Review of Books, Exclaim!, Toronto's Eye Weekly, Urb, and several
others.Blackbodying is his first novel.

Dimitri Nasrallah's profile page

"Nasrallah possesses superb powers of description. With a few deft strokes, he delivers a character's essence and motivations. His idiosyncratically scarred landscapes shimmer in exotic hues." -The Globe and Mail
“?"Niko is a story of accepting the frailty of human beings and about moving forward through the bitterness of exile." -The Montreal Gazette
“?"Sobering and sophisticated... Nasrallah makes your teeth chatter with his riveting survival tale." -Nightlife Magazine??
"Niko is relevant and engrossing reading." -Hour “