Everything Sad is Untrue + Daylight Forever
We’re only three quarters of the way through 2022, but here are my “you NEED to read these” recommendations for the year:
* Everything Sad is Untrue: (A True Story), by Daniel Nayeri
* Daylight Forever: A Memoir, by Mahvash Khajavi-Harvey
You’ve maybe heard of the former — I keep seeing it pop up in different newsletters I subscribe to. It has over 10,000 ratings on Goodreads. You probably haven’t heard of the latter. I believe it was self-published, so the marketing is all on the author, but that means that a recommendation comes truthfully via word of mouth. (This was how it was selected for my high school’s alumni book club since the author lives in Seattle.)
Both are true stories about Iranian refugees who came to the US in the 1980s and 90s. Both books are important reads, no matter how they were published — and maybe that is partly the point. I ended up unintentionally reading them concurrently.
I say this in all sincerity: I am a better person for having read both. Or at least I hope so.
originally published on instagram