Books about Parents and Distance

I've been reading slowly this summer

but I did read these three books that, to me,

even though, in different ways,

they're not ostensibly about these topics

made me think a lot about parents.

The first book was

What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky

by Lesley Nneka Arimah.

That is a short story collection, it's absolutely beautiful.

I think it's her debut, which is astonishing.

Debut! That's rude.

The next one I'll review

is The Road to Lichfield by Penelope Lively.

I'd never read this one.

Penguin sent this to me

because it was reissued with a beautiful new cover.

It's a book that I thought: I know the author, I love them,

and it's going to be a quick read and quite light, probably.

And of course it wasn't,

of course it was devastating in a lot of ways.

And the 3rd book,

sent by a friend who works at Riverhead,

is Refuge by Dina Nayeri,

and I've waited to talk about it until the release

because this is one of my favourite books of the year.

I can't exactly put my finger on why

but the voice and the back-and-forth between these various narratives

really just got to me in some of the most like…

it just clawed down like a cat

and then the claws went in underneath me, you know?

Yeah.

These are quite different books.

Refuge is the story of Niloo and her father

Niloo is an Iranian girl

who lives in America and grows up in America.

She's trying to work out who she is

she's trying to understand her immigrant identity

but she's also a very high achiever within this Western context,

and how to fit herself in that, and fit herself in the lives of others.