Reviews

Refuge is a New York Times Editor’s Choice

“The novel embraces a number of settings with humor and authority, capturing time and place through the lens of believably awkward and tender family interactions. One of its strengths is the heartrending depiction of Niloo’s bid to reconnect with her birth country through budding relationships with a constellation of Iranians in Amsterdam, each of whom hovers in a different brand of immigrant limbo.” –New York Times Book Review

“Reinvention may be a necessity for most exiles, but it does not always come naturally; the new identity can graft roughly onto the old. The strains and indignities that come with remaking a life are what give Refuge poignancy and relevance…Nayeri’s prose can be rich and colorful, bolts of words prettily unfurling…Refuge also has the kind of immediacy commonly associated with memoir, which lends it heft, intimacy, atmosphere.” —New York Times

“Nayeri’s…exploration of the exile’s predicament is tender and urgent.”
–New Yorker

“There are many threads woven through this novel: immigration, identity, familial bonds, drug addiction, and the complex politics of Iran. The fractured perspectives through which Niloo and Bahman see one another – the former sees her father’s flaws sharply, while the latter puts his daughter on a pedestal – are heartbreakingly universal, as are their conflicting desires for connection and distance. The result is an engaging and lyrical work that balances complexity with relatability.”
–Bust

“As Refuge progresses, so too does the build up of emotion and the sense of the personal. Nayeri lets her guard down and the reader in. There can be little doubt that her tears, and her fears, were poured into this book. By the closing pages, I found that my chest had tightened and as my head was nodding in respect. This novel reads like a true story, because it is. Neither Niloo nor her father are extraordinary people and, sadly, nor is theirs an extraordinary situation. Refuge is admirable in its restraint, its lack of melodrama and its honest representation of what is, for millions of dispossessed people, normal life.”
–Bookwitty

“I picked Refuge as my tube read this week and ended up spontaneously bursting into tears at so many moments. Dina Nayeri focuses on the relationship between an Iranian father and daughter as they explore the experience of exile from different sides of the world and there is so much beauty and pain expressed in her prose. At times, I found it both difficult to read and difficult to put down… Which is how I know I’ll be recommending it to everyone I know. It’s stunning.” –BuzzFeed

“As the daughter of an immigrant father, the cultural divides that can exist within families is always on my mind. I love stories that explore questions of home, a central theme of Refuge. How do we relate to the homes of our parents, especially if they aren’t ours? How do we build homes when we haven’t left the old ones freely? These are questions I ask myself all the time, and I’m always looking for how others have answered them.” –Elle

“I highly recommend this wonderful and enlightening novel.” –BookTrib

“Niloo’s story, and her complex relationship with her father, expose a narrative of immigration that is necessary and nuanced.” –Read It Forward

“[An] urgent, resonating contemporary story, highlighting today’s scattered, displaced, lost, all-forced-to-be refugees in search of the titular refuge… Nayeri carefully illuminates the plight of the ever-searching, never-belonging global wanderer.” –Christian Science Monitor

“Dina Nayeri is a writer to watch…intimate and thought-provoking… Crystalline, vivid, moving, and without pretensions, Nayeri’s writing is fluid and spare…she creates poetry…Refuge is a timely novel, about a theme that touches and moves so many, no matter where you are from…the book is full of color and flavor.” –Los Angeles Review of Books

“Dina Nayeri’s new novel, Refuge, follows the journey of a family across time, place and refugee status…It is hard to say if this book is more about family relationships or about the refugee identity, but Dina Nayeri seems to be arguing that these are irrevocably entwined. Nayeri delivers poignant observations about life as a refugee…Nayeri is a master of candid family drama. The narrative never veers into the sentimental nor is it jaded at any point…The complex nature of families is on display here in all its nuances.” –Book Reporter

“Refuge should be required summer reading in 2017… In her second novel, Nayeri draws from her personal experience as an Iranian refugee to craft a beautiful and poignant portrait of the many different experiences of the displaced. A timely and necessary work, Refuge asks readers to challenge their definitions of home and belonging…Written in lush and poetic prose, Refuge is a heartrending story of displacement, identity, and finding a place where you truly belong. Thought-provoking as it is emotionally moving, Nayeri’s novel balances several stories in one: the politics of Iran, the intricacies of family, and the emotions of trying to replant roots that were ripped up… An essential addition to the growing library of refugee literature, Refuge is a vital read for anyone trying to understand what it means to lose and look for home.” –Bustle

“A lush, brimming novel of exile.” –Newsday

“Powerful!” –Liberty Hardy

“A nuanced look at what it means to seek refuge; novels don’t get more timely than this.” –The Millions

“Refuge is a multigenerational global immigration story, an ambitious and hefty pursuit that is softened in scope through deeply intimate character portraits and thoughtful exploration of the nuclear family unit…a heart-splicing portrayal of the current refugee crisis that, through Niloo’s unexpected friendships, encompasses the experiences of refugees from so many different walks of life.” –The Riveter

“If you need a distraction from the divided world we live in, this is the inspiring diversion you’ll never want to put down. A tale true to its title, Refuge is a daring and beautifully written tale of daughter who transplants her entire life, hopes and dreams to a new land…while leaving behind her beloved father. From culture shock and spirit-crippling social rejection to the sharp pangs of homesickness, this stunning read paints a vibrant portrait of the heartache and realities that come with being a refugee. Readers will be left with a higher level of acceptance for everyone we share this planet with — especially those who are different than us.” –Ms. Career Girl

“It’s radical that a novel so topical and urgent as this one has made its way to bookshelves right at the height of the “travel ban.” –W Magazine

“A nuanced and remarkably textured narrative about a world few of us experience.” –BookPage

“Dina Nayeri’s Refuge is a searing and moving meditation on the migrant experience…Against the ebb and flow of their separations and reconciliations, Nayeri charts the desperate journeys and the hopes and fates of other refugees of different nationalities seeking sanctuary in Europe. A timely read and a compelling one.” –Malcolm Forbes for The National

“The immigrant experience is at the heart of Dina Nayeri’s powerful novel of a family split by circumstances.” –Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“Set against landscapes of political unrest, Nayeri’s novel of a daughter and father seeking to reconcile their long-distance perceptions of family offers a captivating, multilayered exploration of lives caught between worlds.” –Booklist

“A poignant reflection on the plight of refugees…Nayeri uses gentle humor and evocative prose to illuminate the power of familial bonds and to bestow individuality on those anonymous people caught between love of country and need for refuge…A beautiful addition to the burgeoning literature of exile.” –Library Journal, STARRED review

“Nayeri’s prose sings while moving nimbly with equal parts seriousness and humor.” –Publishers Weekly

“Nayeri’s second novel is richly imagined and frequently moving in its descriptions of the neither-here-nor-there immigrant’s life…Nayeri manages these various threads—the personal, the political, the cultural, the generational—deftly, and the result is poignant, wise, and often funny… A vital, timely novel about what it means to seek refuge.” –Kirkus

“Beautifully elegiac, Refuge brings into focus the entire experience of emigration… Nayeri is brilliant on parental imperfections and the negotiations children make with their families, and she offers a remarkably textured portrayal of drug addiction and of everyday Iran that defies news-media stereotypes.”  —Matthew Thomas, New York Times-bestselling author of We Are Not Ourselves

“For anyone who has wondered about the distance between contemporary American and Iranian lives and thought, this book is essential reading. If any book can close that distance, this one can.” —Charles Baxter, author of There is Something I Want You To Do

“Dina Nayeri’s prose has something all too rare in books these days: A wild, beating heart.” —Boris Fishman

“I was completely taken up by this book.” —Alice Elliott Dark