by Ayad Akhtar
First published 2021
The narrator returns to his heartland hometown to visit his Pakistani immigrant father, a cardiologist who once treated Donald Trump and still speaks of the encounter with pride. The son watches his father navigate an America that grows more hostile to Muslims each day, while debt collectors circle families like vultures and a reality TV star occupies the White House. Their conversations reveal decades of tension between assimilation and identity, between the promise of America and its betrayals. The story moves from small-town medical practices to luxury hotels in Central Europe to mountain outposts in Afghanistan, following how 9/11 reshaped not just a nation but the intimate bonds between immigrant parents and their American-born children. Through one family's experience, Akhtar captures the weight of living between worlds in a country that demands you choose sides.
Genres: fiction, american-fiction, american, contemporary, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, generational-conflict, immigrant-experience
Setting: Afghanistan, Central Europe, Pakistan, United States
Period: 21st Century, Post-9/11
368 pages · Paperback · Tinder Press
Content warnings: racism