A Good Country - Softcover

Khadivi, Laleh

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1408876035 ISBN 13: 9781408876039

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018

Synopsis

The powerful, moving story of a California teenager from an immigrant family who, finding himself in an increasingly hostile world, is turned from a carefree surfer's life towards a culture of fear and fanaticism

Fourteen-year-old Alireza Courdee contains multitudes. He is a straight-A student and an affable stoner; the high-achieving son of Iranian immigrants, and a Californian surf kid; Alireza, and just plain Rez. But when a terror incident shocks the nation - and then another, and another - Rez finds that the world has only one idea about the type of person he is; that his name and the colour of his skin make him an object of suspicion.

But there are new friends to shine a light into Rez's isolated, angry existence - Arash, a fellow Muslim student, and the beautiful Fatima. Little by little, Rez is drawn into a new circle, a circle as troubling as it is consoling - and which has a grim and glorious mission in mind for him.

Insightful, nuanced and timely, A Good Country is an unforgettable coming-of-age story which deftly captures a young man's alienation and search for identity in a flawed and violent world.

About this title

Review:

Powerful, poignant, excellent (Independent)

Important (Guardian)

Stunning (New York Times)

With insightful, often moving prose, dialogue so exact it echoes from the page, and a stunning balance between compassion and merciless (often damning) realism, Khadivi begins to unravel one of the miseries of the modern political era, which isn't about politics at all but is entirely contained within the flawed and insatiable human heart (Dina Nayeri New York Times)

The narrative is tense and dramatic . An expertly crafted coming-of-age story about radicalisation and cultural integration (Abdulrazak Gurnah Guardian)

What would it take for a studious American teenager - the son of hard-working Iranian immigrants, addicted to surfing, his friends, his stoner way of life and girls - to forsake all of that and become a radicalised Muslim? The question is explored brilliantly in Laleh Khadivi's third novel . The unerring precision of her prose draws you, piece by piece, into Rez's orbit and makes you concerned for his welfare once the skies darken (Herald)

Khadivi is a massive talent, lyrical, evocative, and unsparing . . . Khadivi's feat is a crucial one, especially at this moment in time, when young Muslim men are dehumanized by white Americans far more often than they are understood to be complicated, and individual, human beings .You won't want the book to end (Kirkus Reviews Starred Review)

Engrossing . . . Khadivi's carefully crafted, masterful novel illustrates how the perfect storm of teenage cruelty, racism, and tragedy can create an extremist (Booklist Starred Review)

Brilliantly channeling the minds of angst-filled teenagers with barely formed worldviews who seesaw between brash self-confidence and deflating insecurities . . . Khadivi has written an important, smart, timely novel that rivals such standouts as Karan Mahajan's The Association of Small Bombs or Moshin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Library Journal Starred Review)

Book Description:

The powerful, moving story of a California teenager from an immigrant family who, finding himself in an increasingly hostile world, is turned from a carefree surfer's life towards a culture of fear and fanaticism

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1408876035
• ISBN 13: 9781408876039
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256