Darius doesn't think he'll ever be enough, in America or in Iran. Hilarious and heartbreaking, this unforgettable debut introduces a brilliant new voice in contemporary YA.
Winner of the William C. Morris Debut Award
“Heartfelt, tender, and so utterly real. I’d live in this book forever if I could.”
—Becky Albertalli, award-winning author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He’s a Fractional Persian—half, his mom’s side—and his first-ever trip to Iran is about to change his life.
Darius has never really fit in at home, and he’s sure things are going to be the same in Iran. His clinical depression doesn’t exactly help matters, and trying to explain his medication to his grandparents only makes things harder. Then Darius meets Sohrab, the boy next door, and everything changes. Soon, they’re spending their days together, playing soccer, eating faludeh, and talking for hours on a secret rooftop overlooking the city’s skyline. Sohrab calls him Darioush—the original Persian version of his name—and Darius has never felt more like himself than he does now that he’s Darioush to Sohrab.
Adib Khorram’s brilliant debut is for anyone who’s ever felt not good enough—then met a friend who makes them feel so much better than okay.
This was a really sweet book. It's about so many heavy issues - the main character deals with depression, and being mixed race and not feeling like he fits with either side of his heritage, and being absent from family that lives far away, and feeling like he is perpetually disappointing his dad, and being picked on at school - and yet it manages to be a very light-hearted book. The characters, the story, and the setting all have a lot of depth to them and I really enjoyed living inside this world for a while. I'm really impressed that this was the author's debut. He juggled a lot here and made it look effortless.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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24 March, 2019:
Finished reading
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24 March, 2019:
Reviewed