A review by chalkletters
Refuge by Dina Nayeri

emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

As a Third Culture Kid, I’m always drawn to novels exploring the theme of home. (And yet, somehow, I don’t think I’ve read a single novel about a character with that kind of upbringing.) I even keep a Google doc of quotations about ‘home’ as well as a Tumblr sideblog for descriptions of fictional homes. Refuge didn’t actually make it onto either, perhaps because the theme suffuses the background of the whole book, rather than being presented in quotable snippets. 

Refuge takes a little while to get going. The opening chapters focus on Iranian divorce proceedings, which is somewhat interesting, but doesn’t do a lot to hint at what the story is actually going to be. On the whole, Niloo’s outside perspective of her baba is more charming than the chapters from his own point of view. The story comes into its own where Niloo interacts with the Iranian community she finds in Amsterdam, and in watching her navigate her relationships with her family and her husband.

While Dina Nayeri doesn’t describe the buildings her characters call home, she evokes the sense memories extremely effectively in her descriptions of food. Much of the books feels warm, even when characters aren’t getting along, which supports the importance placed on community and communal eating. The Hamidi family dynamics are their most interesting when they’re all together. The sections with just Bahman in Iran don’t come to life in the same way. (And not only because he’s going through drug withdrawal for parts of them.) 

The ending doesn’t wrap things up neatly, which leaves the reader wondering what will happen. That feels appropriate, especially as that is so often the case with real life. This isn’t a case where the dissatisfaction of not knowing harms the experience.
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