A review by kindledspiritsbooks
Who Gets Believed?: When the Truth Isn't Enough by Dina Nayeri

4.0

Halfway between memoir and essay, Who Gets Believed? poses fascinating questions about the nature of truth and belief and the seemingly small and irrational things that render someone ‘credible’. Nayeri draws on her experience of the asylum system, consultancy, childbirth and more to put the spotlight on the unspoken social codes that regulate who we as a society choose to trust. What I found particularly interesting about this book is that Nayeri is no less critical of herself than she is of the rest of the world, spending a significant amount of time interrogating why she struggles to give credence to her brother in law’s mental health struggles and the significant amount of guilt and shame she carries around the judgements she made on that topic. This thought-provoking book should prompt all of us to take a closer look at who we trust implicitly and who we still feel distrustful of, in spite of what’s right in front of our eyes.