Homeland Elegies

By Ayad Akhtar

Book Overview

This "profound and provocative" work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Disgraced and American Dervish followsan immigrant father and his son as they search for belonging--in post-Trump America, and with each other (Kirkus Reviews).

"Passionate, disturbing, unputdownable." --Salman Rushdie

A deeply personal work about identity and belonging in a nation coming apart at the seams, Homeland Elegies blends fact and fiction to tell an epic story of longing and dispossession in the world that 9/11 made. Part family drama, part social essay, part picaresque novel, at its heart it is the story of a father, a son, and the country they both call home.

​Ayad Akhtar forges a new narrative voice to capture a country in which debt has ruined countless lives and the gods of finance rule, where immigrants live in fear, and where the nation's unhealed wounds wreak havoc around the world. Akhtar attempts to make sense of it all through the lens of a story about one family, from a heartland town in America to palatial suites in Central Europe to guerrilla lookouts in the mountains of Afghanistan, and spares no one--least of all himself--in the process.

One of the New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year

One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2020

Finalist for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction

A Best Book of 2020 * Washington Post * O Magazine * New York Times Book Review * Publishers Weekly

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316496413
• ISBN13: 9780316496414
• Release Date: May 2021
• Publisher: Little, Brown Paperbacks
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.8" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Amust read

"Never trust the artist, trust the tale"~ DH Lawrence This book of "memoir-fiction"[author description] has lanquished on my shelf for a long time. I only wish I had read it sooner. I was first introduced to Akhtar reading "American Dervish". In this hybrid, he writes about his father and his family;s oersonal struggles pre-immigration through post 9/11. It is not an easy book and I found myself disagreeing with some characters and embracing others as the story unfolded. For anyone interested in contemporary authors and stories/memoirs this a highly recommended book. 5/5

Insightful look at how cultures, class, & conformity shape relationships and life paths. Loved it.

The protagonist is a NY playwright who grew up in the Midwest, with Pakistani immigrant parents. He deals with heightened post 9/11 islamophobic ignorance, rigid dogmatic adherents to religious text, temporary pet status of billionaires, and a father who supports Trump.