This book touched my heart. I knew and have known various versions of Darius in every stage of my life and I wish that I could have been each of their Sohrab. I loved that I got to experience a culture that I was not in any way familiar with. I loved being enveloped in Darius’s family traditions and even their flawed family dynamics. I fell in love with the Iran portrayed in this book and that was completely unexpected.
Leave a CommentDarius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He’s a Fractional Persian—half, his mom’s side—and his first-ever trip to Iran is about to change his life.
Dial Books, Amazon
Darius has never really fit in at home, and he’s sure things are going to be the same in Iran. His clinical depression doesn’t exactly help matters, and trying to explain his medication to his grandparents only makes things harder. Then Darius meets Sohrab, the boy next door, and everything changes. Soon, they’re spending their days together, playing soccer, eating faludeh, and talking for hours on a secret rooftop overlooking the city’s skyline. Sohrab calls him Darioush—the original Persian version of his name—and Darius has never felt more like himself than he does now that he’s Darioush to Sohrab.
Adib Khorram’s brilliant debut is for anyone who’s ever felt not good enough—then met a friend who makes them feel so much better than okay.