Darius feels out-of-place everywhere -with his family, at school, even at his job. When his family travels to Iran to stay with his grandfather who is dying of a brain tumor, Darius has the chance to figure out how he is and who he wants to be.
This was a nice coming-of-age story, and I enjoyed seeing Darius grow, and in particular seeing how his relationship with his father changed. The cultural aspects gave this a lot more depth than is typical of this genre, and it does a great job of showing his troubles fitting in as an Iranian in America but also as an American in Iran. My only complaint was that it felt like things resolved a bit too easily - both with his father and his friendship with Sohrab - although in the young adult genre, that's not unusual. I was excited to see where his friendship with Sohrab went, and what he learns about himself, and am looking forward to seeing how that changes further in the next books.
This was a nice coming-of-age story, and I enjoyed seeing Darius grow, and in particular seeing how his relationship with his father changed. The cultural aspects gave this a lot more depth than is typical of this genre, and it does a great job of showing his troubles fitting in as an Iranian in America but also as an American in Iran. My only complaint was that it felt like things resolved a bit too easily - both with his father and his friendship with Sohrab - although in the young adult genre, that's not unusual. I was excited to see where his friendship with Sohrab went, and what he learns about himself, and am looking forward to seeing how that changes further in the next books.