Sohrab teaches Darius what friendship is really about: loyalty, honesty, and someone who has your back in a football (soccer) match. But all that changes when Darius meets Sohrab, a Bahá’í boy, in Yazd. When he arrives in Iran, learning to play the Persian card game Rook, socializing, and celebrating Nowruz with a family he had never properly met before is all overwhelming and leaves Darius wondering if he’ll ever truly belong anywhere. He’s mocked for his name and nerdy interests at Chapel Hill High School in Portland, Oregon, and doesn’t speak enough Farsi to communicate with his Iranian relatives either. Iranian on his mother’s side and white American on his father’s side, Darius never quite fits in. When Darius’ grandfather becomes terminally ill, Darius, along with his parents and younger sister, travels to Iran for the first time in his life. The direct address challenges readers in a way that is heavy-handed only at the end, but even so it is chillingly effective.Ī heartbreaking, haunting, and necessary story that offers hope while laying bare the bleakness of the world Tareq leaves and the new one he seeks to joinĭarius Kellner suffers from depression, bullying by high school jocks, and a father who seems to always be disappointed in him. The narrator’s philosophical asides allow readers just enough distance to balance the intimacy of the suffering witnessed along the journey while helping to place the Syrian crisis in global and historical context as part of the cycle of humanity. The narrator is Destiny, whose authoritative voice suits the tragic and dramatic turns of plot.
Abawi integrates just enough background information into the plot to make the story and characters comprehensible. Through incredible dangers and suffering, they meet refugees and aid workers from across the globe.
When life in Turkey offers little hope, Tareq’s father sends him and Susan to make the treacherous trip to Greece by water. When his home is hit by a bomb that kills most of his family in one day, Tareq is suddenly a refugee, traveling with his father and one surviving younger sister, Susan, to another Syrian town, then out of Syria to Turkey. Tareq, a young Syrian teenager, changes his daily routine as airstrikes on his city increase. From award-winning journalist Abawi ( The Secret Sky, 2014) comes an unforgettable novel that brings readers face to face with the global refugee crisis.
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