A review by alana_loves_books
Refuge by Dina Nayeri

3.0

I am always moved by stories of those who leave everything behind and begin anew, creating a home out of nothing in a new country and culture. This book is about Niloo, an Iranian girl who leaves her beloved and larger-than-life father to live in America with her mother and brother. Niloo struggles to find her place but eventually finds peace in academia. Eventually she moves to Amsterdam with her French husband who struggles to understand her rootlessness. She is continually drawn to and yet repulsed by her former culture and her father. When she finds an Iranian community, she bristles at their neediness (they want her help as they seek political asylum), but then she begins to reconnect with her Iranian self. Meanwhile, her poet/dentist father finds himself under house arrest with his current wife and his ex-wife who care for him as he withdraws from his daily opium habit. His country is in turmoil and he must make choices that will determine the fate of his relationship with Niloo. // I enjoyed this book because it gave great insight into the heart and soul of an immigrant; how the loss of the original home must be grieved and yet set aside in order to create a new home. And it ponders the question of whether home is a physical place or a person or a piece of art or a jar of familiar spices. The characters were complex and not always likeable. The writing was lovely.