Solacers

He had no home to return to, no fixed point to orient himself—only the next place, the next day, the next chance to endure.
What remained with him were moments: small, unexpected acts of kindness from people who had little reason to care. They did not rescue him. They did not explain his life. But sometimes, they were enough to keep him going.

In Solacers, Alireza (Arion) Golmakani recounts a childhood shaped by the absence of stability, protection, and certainty. From adobe homes to city streets, from the thresholds of strangers to the rigid order of military training, he moves along the outer edges of Iranian life, learning early that survival depends as much on observation and adaptability as on strength.
Yet he does not harden. He watches. He listens. He remembers.
Solacers is not a story about remaining a victim of what happened. It is about what happens afterward—how a child without a secure place in the world gradually develops a way of seeing it, and how scattered moments of human kindness can leave marks as lasting as cruelty.
Told without self-pity or easy redemption, Solacers is a memoir about survival, memory, and the choices that ultimately determine what we become.
For readers of Educated and The Glass Castle, and for book clubs drawn to memoirs that leave behind questions worth discussing.



Best Nonfiction Finalist, Stanford University Libraries, William Saroyan International Prize.

Moving memoirs every student should read. –OnlineCollege



"He was neither an orphan nor a street kid, but life dealt him such a hand that now, those who hear the story of his childhood in Iran, consider him an Oliver Twist in the streets of Mashhad. His childhood could be summarized in two words: Hunger and Forlorn.” –BBC

"If you devoured “The Glass Castle,” vividly remember “Angela's Ashes,” and were fascinated by “Destined to Witness,” if you loved the colorful descriptions, the oriental storytelling and the ornate language of Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner,” you will definitely get your money’s worth reading “Solacers,” by the American author Arion Golmakani." –Joke Brocker, Westfälische Nachrichten 

“Congratulation on writing such a first-class book.” –Dr. Ehsan Yarshater, Author of Encyclopedia Iranica, founder and director of The Center for Iranian Studies, and Emeritus Professor of Iranian Studies at Columbia University

"A story of hope, determination, and forgiveness, Solacers is a remarkable tale of resilience and optimism, with lessons for us all. Golmakani gives voice to children everywhere who long for nurturing and hunger for security." –Hans J. Massaquoi, retired managing editor of Ebony Magazine and the author of the best-selling book, Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany