Homeland Elegies
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4.3 • 59 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
This "profound and provocative" work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Disgraced and American Dervish followsan immigrant father and his son as they search for belonging—in post-Trump America, and with each other (Kirkus Reviews).
"Passionate, disturbing, unputdownable." —Salman Rushdie
A deeply personal work about identity and belonging in a nation coming apart at the seams, Homeland Elegies blends fact and fiction to tell an epic story of longing and dispossession in the world that 9/11 made. Part family drama, part social essay, part picaresque novel, at its heart it is the story of a father, a son, and the country they both call home.
Ayad Akhtar forges a new narrative voice to capture a country in which debt has ruined countless lives and the gods of finance rule, where immigrants live in fear, and where the nation's unhealed wounds wreak havoc around the world. Akhtar attempts to make sense of it all through the lens of a story about one family, from a heartland town in America to palatial suites in Central Europe to guerrilla lookouts in the mountains of Afghanistan, and spares no one—least of all himself—in the process.
One of the New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year
One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2020
Finalist for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction
A Best Book of 2020 * Washington Post * O Magazine * New York Times Book Review * Publishers Weekly
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
As the protagonist in this incisive story learns, growing up Pakistani-American in post-9/11 America can be hazardous to your mental health. In his fictionalized autobiography, Pulitzer-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar follows a young writer named Ayad who grows up feeling distant from his Trump-envying father and depressed mother. Consequently, Ayad picks up surrogate parents throughout his journey, from a sympathetic college professor to a Pakistani-American financial mogul. Seamlessly moving between sections that read like a completely factual memoir, a purely fictional novel, and a collection of smart essays, this brilliant book stunningly illustrates the ways that having a Middle Eastern background in the United States can impact you socially, economically, and politically. Akhtar’s conversational writing style pairs perfectly with his narration, making you feel every visceral moment of this struggle.
