Title: Everything Sad is Untrue
Author: Daniel Nayeri
Genre: Fictionalized Memoir
A boy named Khosrou (whom everyone calls "Daniel") tries to tell a story. His story. But Khosrou's stories, stretching back years, and decades, and centuries, are beautiful and terrifying, from the moment his family fled Iran in the middle of the night with the secret police moments behind them, back to the cement refugee camps of Italy, and further back to his grandmother's tragic childhood, and how it all led to Oklahoma.
This book was wonderful. Khosrou jumps around from story to story, often comparing himself to Scheherazade telling 1001 stories to stay alive, weaving together his childhood in Iran, Persian myths and legends, and his time in Oklahoma. He tells his stories both for school assignments and in an attempt to remember his history. As he says, "A patchwork story is the shame of a refugee," and Khosrou wants to remember all of his stories.
This book was the winner of the 2021 Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature.
- Beth
Check out Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri @ the library!
