I believe this is why soldiers returning to “normal” life cannot speak of the atrocities they have seen and experienced-we cannot relate and are horrified. Daniel does a great job reading and providing verbal cues and nuance but the story is extremely sad and overwhelming. I am sorry too that he wound up in a community who does not accept outsiders and am not sure life was a whole lot better except he and his mother are alive instead of beheaded. I know it is a personal story and has relevance and meaning but with everything else going on, I don’t need this in my mind to ponder.

So depressing I knew I could not finish it. After the “bag of cats” story, that was it for me. Everything Sad Is Untrue (a true story) is a tale of heartbreak and resilience and urges readers to speak their truth and be heard.I heard his interview on NPR and thought it would be an interesting read. Like Scheherazade of One Thousand and One Nights in a hostile classroom, Daniel spins a tale to save his own life: to stake his claim to the truth. Implementing a distinct literary style and challenging western narrative structures, Nayeri deftly weaves through stories of the long and beautiful history of his family in Iran, adding a richness of ancient tales and Persian folklore.

Anywhere becomes the sad, cement refugee camps of Italy, and then finally asylum in the U.S. At the core is Daniel's story of how they became refugees-starting with his mother's vocal embrace of Christianity in a country that made such a thing a capital offense, and continuing through their midnight flight from the secret police, bribing their way onto a plane-to-anywhere. In an Oklahoman middle school, Khosrou (whom everyone calls Daniel) stands in front of a skeptical audience of classmates, telling the tales of his family's history, stretching back years, decades, and centuries. 'A patchwork story is the shame of the refugee,' Nayeri writes early in the novel. It is a powerfully layered novel that poses the questions: Who owns the truth? Who speaks it? Who believes it?

A sprawling, evocative, and groundbreaking autobiographical novel told in the unforgettable and hilarious voice of a young Iranian refugee.

Sad is untrue