Everything Sad Is Untrue: (a true story)

by Daniel Nayeri

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Everything Sad Is Untrue is a story about stories, based on the author’s own life. Daniel (in the book) expertly weaves together tales of his family from ancient Persia, stories of his young life in Iran, and his current life as “the weird kid” in rural Oklahoma. It's a mesmerizing and, at times, emotional read that will make readers of any age think in a new way, but with plenty of snarky writing and literary potty humor that middle schoolers will certainly appreciate.

A National Indie Bestseller
An NPR Best Book of the Year
A New York Times Best Book of the Year
An Amazon Best Book of the Year
A Booklist Editors' Choice
A BookPage Best Book of the Year
A NECBA Windows & Mirrors Selection
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
A Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year
A Today.com Best of the Year

PRAISE

"A modern masterpiece."—The New York Times Book Review

"Supple, sparkling and original." —The Wall Street Journal

"Mesmerizing."—TODAY.com

"This book could change the world."—BookPage

"Like nothing else you've read or ever will read."—Linda Sue Park

"It hooks you right from the opening line."—NPR

SEVEN STARRED REVIEWS

★ "A modern epic."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

★ "A rare treasure of a book." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

★ "A story that soars." —The Bulletin, starred review

★ "At once beautiful and painful."—School Library Journal, starred review

★ "Raises the literary bar in children's lit." —Booklist, starred review

★ "Poignant and powerful." —Foreword Reviews, starred review

★ "One of the most extraordinary books of the year." —BookPage, starred review

A sprawling, evocative, and groundbreaking autobiographical novel told in the unforgettable and hilarious voice of a young Iranian refugee. It is a powerfully layered novel that poses the questions: Who owns the truth? Who speaks it? Who believes it?

"A patchwork story is the shame of the refugee," Nayeri writes early in the novel. In an Oklahoman middle school, Khosrou (whom everyone calls Daniel) stands in front of a skeptical audience of classmates, telling the tales of his family's history, stretching back years, decades, and centuries. At the core is Daniel's story of how they became refugees—starting with his mother's vocal embrace of Christianity in a country that made such a thing a capital offense, and continuing through their midnight flight from the secret police, bribing their way onto a plane-to-anywhere. Anywhere becomes the sad, cement refugee camps of Italy, and then finally asylum in the U.S. Implementing a distinct literary style and challenging western narrative structures, Nayeri deftly weaves through stories of the long and beautiful history of his family in Iran, adding a richness of ancient tales and Persian folklore.

Like Scheherazade of One Thousand and One Nights in a hostile classroom, Daniel spins a tale to save his own life: to stake his claim to the truth. EVERYTHING SAD IS UNTRUE (a true story) is a tale of heartbreak and resilience and urges readers to speak their truth and be heard.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781646140008
Publisher:	Levine Querido
Publication date:	08/25/2020
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	96
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 5.80(h) x 1.30(d)
Lexile:	800L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Daniel Nayeri was born in Iran and spent a couple of years as a refugee before immigrating to Oklahoma at age eight with his family. He is the publisher of Odd Dot, an imprint of Macmillan, making him one of the youngest publishers in the industry. He has served on the CBC diversity committee and the CBC panel committee.

Editorial Reviews

When I was growing up, my bedtime stories involved great warriors and kings, the heroes of ancient Persia. Many came from the Shahnameh, an epic Persian poem that weaves the history of Iran like a colorful tapestry. In Everything Sad Is Untrue, Daniel Nayeri weaves an equally rich history of his family's journey from Iran to America…Everything Sad invites us not just to see another perspective but to live in it. It's openhearted storytelling when we need it most, an antidote to our divided times…Everything Sad is a modern masterpiece—as epic as the Iliad and Shahnameh, and as heartwarming as Charlotte's Web. It's for the kids at the lunch table; the heroes of tomorrow, just looking to survive the battle of adolescence.

The New York Times Book Review - Arvin Ahmadi

★ 06/15/2020

Marked by a distinctive voice—a straightforward mix of confiding, slyly humorous, and unsentimentally sorrowful—Nayeri’s (Straw House, Wood House, Brick House, Blow) impressive autobiographical novel is narrated by 12-year-old Khosrou, known as Daniel, who models himself after the legendary Scheherazade. The chapterless “patchwork story” follows Daniel through his dreamlike early childhood in Iran, a year in an Italian refugee camp with his sister and “unstoppable” mother (but without his larger-than-life father, who chose to stay behind), and their eventual asylum in Oklahoma. The text moves nimbly back and forth in time, depicting with equal vividness ancient Persian tales (a jasmine-scented village with saffron fields, courtyards, and fountains), family history (a legendary ancestral doctor), and the challenges of navigating life as an outsider in “a land of concrete and weathermen.” Interspersed with his experiences is the narrator’s accumulated wisdom on a broad range of subjects—cultural differences in bathroom habits, the creation of Persian rugs, the roots of today’s conflicts between Shiites and Sunnis—which help establish Daniel’s identity as a knowledgeable, thoughtful storyteller. Mesmerizing and hard-hitting at once, this work of personal mythology is a rare treasure of a book. Ages 10–up. Agent: Joanna Volpe, New Leaf Literary. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Like nothing else you've read or ever will read."-Newbery Medalist, Linda Sue Park

"A modern epic." - KIRKUS REVIEWS ( starred review)

"A story that soars. Readers will be transported."- BCCB (starred review)

"A distinctive voice. A rare treasure of a book." - PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review)

"Poignant and powerful. A story of heartbreak and resilience." - FOREWORD REVIEWS (starred review)

"One of the most extraordinary books of the year."- BOOKPAGE ( starred review)

"A journey as intimate as it is epic. A remarkable work that raises the literary bar in children's lit."- BOOKLIST (starred review)

"At once beautiful and painful, this timely story is highly recommended for middle grade readers."- SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL (starred review)

"A modern masterpiece - as epic as the "Iliad" and "Shahnameh," and as heartwarming as "Charlotte's Web." It's for the kids at the lunch table; the heroes of tomorrow, just looking to survive the battle of adolescence." - NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"Supple, sparkling and original." - THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

From the Publisher

★ 07/01/2020

Gr 4–8— Nayeri weaves stories within stories in this fictionalized account of his formative years. He shares layers of rich information about life in Iran, refugee camps, and his experiences as an immigrant in the United States during the late 20th century. The themes of family, love, and truth are as strong as those of faith, endurance, memory, and storytelling as Khosrou (also known as Daniel) tries to tell the tales of his beautiful, complicated life and family. Nayeri provides clues about other characters without overexplaining them. Tough issues are discussed, particularly domestic violence, bullying, and life as a refugee and an immigrant, but there is levity, too. Khosrou's thoughts on Manwich sloppy joe sauce, using toilets in the U.S., and his father's overindulgence in Twinkies all lighten this tale. Without being didactic, the text communicates the universality of the human experience and the lack of empathy shown by some, not all, of those he encounters in the U.S. and in the refugee environments. The strongest developed characters are Daniel and his mother; however, readers experience varying levels of complexities of other characters like Daniel's father, stepfather, sister, teacher, and his friends (and enemies). VERDICT At once beautiful and painful, this timely story is highly recommended for middle grade readers.—Hilary Writt, formerly at Sullivan Univ., Lexington, KY

School Library Journal

★ 2020-05-05
“Every story is the sound of a storyteller begging to stay alive.”

Khosrou, the child, stands before his class in Oklahoma and tells stories of Iran, lifetimes’ worth of experiences compressed into writing prompts. Daniel, the adult, pieces together his “patchwork” past to stitch a quilt of memory in a free-wheeling, layered manner more reminiscent of a conversation than a text. At its most basic level, Nayeri’s offering is a fictionalized refugee’s memoir, an adult looking back at his childhood and the forced adoption of a new and infinitely more difficult life. Yet somehow “memoir” fails to do justice to the scope of the narrative, the self-proclaimed antithesis of just another “ ‘poor me’ tale of immigrant woe.” Like Scheherazade, Nayeri spins 1,001 tales: In under 400 pages he recounts Persian myth and history, leads readers through days banal and outstanding, waxes philosophical on the nature of life and love, and more. Not “beholden” to the linear conventions of Western storytelling, the story might come across as disjointed, but the various anecdotes are underscored by a painful coherence as they work to illuminate not only a larger story, but a life. And there is beauty amid the pain as well as laughter. The soul-sapping hopelessness of a refugee camp is treated with the same dramatic import as the struggle to eliminate on Western toilets. The language is evocative: simple yet precise, rife with the idiosyncratic and abjectly honest imagery characteristic of a child’s imagination.(This review has been updated to clarify that the book is a work of fiction.)

A modern epic. (author’s note, acknowledgments) (Historical fiction. 10-18)

Kirkus Reviews

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