Publishers Weekly
05/13/2019
Novelist Nayeri (Refuge) explores the plight of refugees through the prism of her own childhood escape from Iran in this provocative account. She begins with an account of how, after being threatened for practicing Christianity in the 1980s, eight-year-old Nayeri and her family fled Iran, found refuge in Italy, and were later granted asylum in the U.S. She then interviews and reflects on other refugees, many of whom escape tyrannical governments and poverty only to be interned in crowded camps as they await asylum: Kambiz, a young Iranian man accused of adultery for befriending a married woman, fled to the Netherlands, where, facing deportation, he killed himself (Nayeri read about him then interviewed his relatives and friends). Majid and Farzaneh, who left Iran for Europe with their daughters, crossed the Aegean Sea in an overcrowded, water-logged boat and experienced refugee camps with overflowing toilets. Valid and Taraa survived threats from the Taliban and a near-fatal car crash only to be granted asylum in Greece after 15 years on the waiting list. Filled with evocative prose (“We are all immigrants from the past, and home lives inside the memory, where we lock it up and pretend it is unchanged”), Nayeri reveals the indignities exiles suffer as they dodge danger and shed their identities and souls while attempting to find safety. This thought-provoking narrative is a moving look at the current immigrant experience. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
Praise for The Ungrateful Refugee
Finalist for the 2019 Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year in Nonfiction
An American Booksellers Association Indie Next Selection
"Dina Nayeri's powerful writing confronts issues that are key to the refugee experience." —Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sympathizer and The Refugees
"Ms. Nayeri's personal account is sure to be a powerful statement in the current political climate." —Rashida Tlaib, U.S. Congressional Representative, 13th District of Michigan
"Nayeri, the author of two novels including Refuge, uses her first work of nonfiction to remind readers of the pain and horrors refugees face before and long after their settlement. It is timely, as President Trump has made barring refugees from the United States a priority, and the Western world is plagued with a surge in nativism. Nayeri combines her own experience with those of refugees she meets as an adult, telling their stories with tenderness and reverence." —Nazila Fathi, The New York Times Book Review
"Nayeri weaves her empowering personal story with those of the 'feared swarms,' asylum–seekers in Greece and the Netherlands. Her family’s escape from Isfahan to Oklahoma, which involved waiting in Dubai and Italy, is wildly fascinating, and even by today’s standards it remains miraculous . . . Using energetic prose, Nayeri is an excellent conduit for these heart–rending stories, eschewing judgment and employing care in threading the stories in with her own . . . This is a memoir laced with stimulus and plenty of heart at a time when the latter has grown elusive." —Angela Ajayi, Star–Tribune (Minneapolis)
"A work of astonishing, insistent importance . . . A book full of revelatory truths, moments where we are plunged deeply and painfully into the quotidian experience of the refugee." —Alex Preston, The Observer
"A thoughtful investigation combining a memoir of [Nayeri's] former life—which includes a dramatic departure from her home country and two years of adjustment before arrival and 'acceptance' in the US—and a collection of case studies interrogating what it means to have been, or to be, a refugee. Nayeri robustly challenges the perceived obligation on the displaced person to revoke or tone down their former identity; to assimilate, to be a 'good investment' for any country that has admitted them. It is a provocative work . . . This wide–ranging, reasoned book is no polemic: its observations are self–reflective, contemplative and significant." —Catherine Taylor, Financial Times
"The Ungrateful Refugee argues that ungratefulness is one of many appropriate responses to the circumstances in which refugees find themselves, that there are as many reactions as there are people who wear the label of refugee at some point in their life. And it is a critique of a system that asks refugees and other immigrants to perform themselves in order to fit a narrow set of definitions in order to be granted the very least any country or person can offer—safety . . . The Ungrateful Refugee is the work of an author at the top of her game." —Jessica Goudeau, Guernica
"A gallery of powerful portraits of the experiences of those fleeing persecution and war, and those who help and support them. This is not comfortable reading, but it is compelling. In moving, poetic prose Nayeri unravels this difficult subject, never dodging troubling questions." —Lynnda Wardle, Glasgow Review of Books
"This book’s combination of personal narrative and collective refugee story is compelling, necessary, and deeply thought and felt. Writing with truth and beauty, Nayeri reckons with her own past as a refugee . . . This valuable account of refugee lives will grip readers' attention." —Booklist (starred review)
"With inventive, powerful prose, Nayeri demonstrates what should be obvious: that refugees give up everything in their native lands only when absolutely necessary—if they remain, they may face poverty, physical torture, or even death . . . A unique, deeply thought–out refugee saga perfect for our moment." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Library Journal - Audio
11/01/2019
In her first nonfiction book, novelist Nayeri (A Faded Sense) uses her storytelling skills to chronicle the struggles refugees face after they escape death and violence in their native lands and seek asylum in Europe or the United States. Nayeri tells the stories of asylum seekers and supporters she interviewed during in 2016, when she began a journey to better understand her past. At age eight, Nayeri fled Iran with her mother and brother. Her mother, Muslim by birth, had converted to Christianity and was active in an underground church, becoming a target for the moral police. For the next two years, Nayeri's family lived as refugees in Dubai and Rome, until they were granted asylum in the United States. Her story is at the root of all other stories she tells about the refugees' plight, broken down into the book's five parts: Escape, Camp, Asylum, Assimilation, and Cultural Repatriation. Some, unfortunately, never experience all of it. Some languish in refugee camps or "in-between places," waiting for their asylum requests to be granted. It's fitting Nayeri does the narration of the audiobook. It's her story and it should be heard in her voice. And as with other skilled storytellers, her narration falls into the background so the stories themselves can come to life. VERDICT This is a relevant and compelling read in today's political times. It humanizes the so-called "refugee crisis" and puts into perspective why people seek asylum and what they face as a result.—Gladys Alcedo, Wallingford, CT
SEPTEMBER 2019 - AudioFile
The Iranian-American novelist’s quick, steady pace creates an adventurous narration as she asks pivotal questions about what it means to be a refugee. Nayeri also explores what it means to call a place home. Her words and tone are filled with contrasting levels of discomfort and youthfulness that underscore the trauma of the experiences she describes and their long-term effect on her. Without question, the emotion in her voice shapes her natural storytelling ability. Nayeri interweaves her own experiences and the stories of other refugees of varying ages. She decisively writes about a community of people, dispelling myths and stereotypes as well as offering awareness and personal truths not often shared publicly. T.E.C. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2019-05-27
A novelist turns to nonfiction to illuminate the refugee experience, focusing mostly on her Iranian family but also reporting the sagas of many others fleeing poverty and violence.
The word "ungrateful" in the title is intended sarcastically, even bitterly. For Nayeri (Refuge, 2017, etc.), winner of the UNESCO City of Literature Paul Engle Prize, that word signifies the misguided mindset of privileged individuals in stable nations who treat desperate refugees with suspicion, condescension, or even outright cruelty. Those unkind hosts falsely believe that refugees expect something for nothing, that maybe those fleeing to save their lives will somehow displace welfare benefits and jobs in a new land. With inventive, powerful prose, Nayeri demonstrates what should be obvious: that refugees give up everything in their native lands only when absolutely necessary—if they remain, they may face poverty, physical torture, or even death. The author, who was born during the Iranian Revolution and came to the U.S. when she was 10, grew up with her brother in a household run by her physician mother and dentist father. However, their relative privilege could not keep them safe from Muslim extremists involved in the revolution. Nayeri's father learned to compromise his principles to get along, but her mother rebelled openly, converting to Christianity. The extremists threatened to kill her and take her children, so her mother gathered her children and fled, leaving Iran secretly via a risky route. Nayeri's father stayed behind, eventually remarrying and starting a new family. The refugees subsisted for 16 months in squalor, mostly in a compound in Italy. Nayeri's mother, desperately working every angle, used her wits and solid education to gain entry to the U.S. The author uses some time-shifting to unfold the narrative, which she divides into five sections: escape (from Iran), refugee camp, asylum (in the U.S.), assimilation, and cultural repatriation.
A unique, deeply thought-out refugee saga perfect for our moment.
