Refuge

As antiimmigration sentiment stirs throughout the West, it's easy to forget the trauma experienced by those forced to leave their homelands fleeing war, famine, or religious persecution. Nayeri's new novel, after A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea, is a poignant reflection on the plight of refugees from the perspective of Niloo Hamadi, who arrived in the United States from Iran as an impressionable eight-year-old. Raised in Oklahoma with her brother Kian, educated at the best American schools, now married to Guillaume and pursuing a career in anthropology in Amsterdam, Niloo could be a poster child for the ideal émigré experience. A tightly controlled overachiever, she has little sympathy for her Rumi-quoting, hashish-smoking father, who stayed behind in Isfahan. During their few reunions, she is embarrassed by his excesses and neediness while subconsciously harboring a yearning for the love and generosity of spirit they once shared. Longing to recapture her Iranian identity, Niloo befriends a community of alienated asylum seekers, causing her to reevaluate her life choices.