In her first nonfiction book, novelist Nayeri (A Faded Sense) uses her storytelling skills to chronicle the struggles refugees face after they escape death and violence in their native lands and seek asylum in Europe or the United States. Nayeri tells the stories of asylum seekers and supporters she interviewed during in 2016, when she began a journey to better understand her past. At age eight, Nayeri fled Iran with her mother and brother. Her mother, Muslim by birth, had converted to Christianity and was active in an underground church, becoming a target for the moral police. For the next two years, Nayeri's family lived as refugees in Dubai and Rome, until they were granted asylum in the United States. Her story is at the root of all other stories she tells about the refugees' plight, broken down into the book's five parts: Escape, Camp, Asylum, Assimilation, and Cultural Repatriation. Some, unfortunately, never experience all of it. Some languish in refugee camps or "in-between places," waiting for their asylum requests to be granted. It's fitting Nayeri does the narration of the audiobook. It's her story and it should be heard in her voice. And as with other skilled storytellers, her narration falls into the background so the stories themselves can come to life. VERDICT This is a relevant and compelling read in today's political times. It humanizes the so-called "refugee crisis" and puts into perspective why people seek asylum and what they face as a result.--Gladys Alcedo, Wallingford, CT

Novelist Nayeri (Refuge) explores the plight of refugees through the prism of her own childhood escape from Iran in this provocative account. She begins with an account of how, after being threatened for practicing Christianity in the 1980s, eight-year-old Nayeri and her family fled Iran, found refuge in Italy, and were later granted asylum in the U.S. She then interviews and reflects on other refugees, many of whom escape tyrannical governments and poverty only to be interned in crowded camps as they await asylum: Kambiz, a young Iranian man accused of adultery for befriending a married woman, fled to the Netherlands, where, facing deportation, he killed himself (Nayeri read about him then interviewed his relatives and friends). Majid and Farzaneh, who left Iran for Europe with their daughters, crossed the Aegean Sea in an overcrowded, water-logged boat and experienced refugee camps with overflowing toilets. Valid and Taraa survived threats from the Taliban and a near-fatal car crash only to be granted asylum in Greece after 15 years on the waiting list. Filled with evocative prose ("We are all immigrants from the past, and home lives inside the memory, where we lock it up and pretend it is unchanged"), Nayeri reveals the indignities exiles suffer as they dodge danger and shed their identities and souls while attempting to find safety. This thought-provoking narrative is a moving look at the current immigrant experience. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

This book's combination of personal narrative and collective refugee story is compelling, necessary, and deeply thought and felt. Writing with truth and beauty, Nayeri (Refuge, 2017) reckons with her own past as a refugee, having left Iran at age eight with her mother and brother to eventually settle in Oklahoma. As an adult she has a daughter and does not want to pass down a legacy of identity confusion and a compulsion to move every few years. Throughout her escape, migration, and assimilation, Nayeri understood the importance of telling a story (even if only partially true) that casts her as an intensely desperate person welling with gratitude to be in a better place. Trouble would follow if she judged Iranian pastry superior to the bright blue American slushy, or if she admitted that Iranian school was more rigorous while waiting for her American peers to catch up in math. As part of her inquiry, Nayeri visits a refugee camp in Greece and talks to families still enduring years-long limbo. Folks live in Isobox containers, shop at a store with points in lieu of money, and approximate dishes from home to feel grounded. This valuable account of refugee lives will grip readers' attention.--Emily Dziuban Copyright 2019 Booklist