A review by esessa
Refuge by Dina Nayeri

5.0

Really enjoyed this. Nayeri is extremely talented at developing characters and immersively (is that a word?) depicting locations. I felt I understood each of the characters, especially the main character, pretty deeply, which is no small feat considering how totally different my world is from theirs. Niloo escaped Iran as a child and grew up a refugee, while her father remained behind. The novel recounts each of their subsequent meetings, in different places around the world, as well as keeping pace with Niloo's current life over a period of a few weeks to months in Amsterdam, where she now lives. Her inner life and conflicts over her identity, connections to her family and husband, and to Iran and her adopted community of refugees, were so deeply explored that I found myself empathizing really strongly with her even while wishing she would behave differently in some situations. She is a fully realized tragic heroine. Each place visited over the course of the story was also gorgeously described, especially scents and foods (which are often tightly intertwined), and you could picture clearly each place the novel brings you to observe Niloo and her various family members, down to the sounds and smells. An expertly crafted story in all its elements.