“Told with clear-eyed propulsive prose, this kaleidoscopic novel is about an Iranian family foraging for a life in France, trying to piece together the shattered parts of their ancestry and identity. I was instantly drawn to the narrator’s father, Darius Sadr, who spends his life “bent over a ream of writing paper” and whose destiny is “joined to the staircases of the world…and to the indifferent gazes of the passers-by.” I’ve completely fallen in love with his absurd, embittered logic and with his daughter Kimiâ’s wild, untethered voice. Disoriental is told from Kimiâ’s perspective as she sits in the waiting room of a fertility clinic in Paris with the possibility of the next generation of Sadr’s looming on the horizon. This electrifying novel is as much about the tricks of memory as it is about art and politics and the ways in which we are left alone to contend with the tragedies of history that come at us in waves.”
Read the full list at Electric Literature.
