This book is about finding your place, accepting your perceived flaws, belonging.ĭarius is a complex character, a teen you want to hug. It is brimming with life, even with the shadow of political and religious unrest simmering beneath the surface. This novel is full of history and culture and food and family. What I know about Iran would likely fill a teaspoon, and most of that is likely negative. There is a real sense of place in Khorram’s novel. Their unfolding friendship is truly a thing of beauty to behold. Luckily, he meets Sohrab almost as soon as he arrives, and this new friendship teaches him not only about his heritage, but about himself as a person. He is a “Fractional Persian” at best, and the customs and culture are almost as alien to him as they might be for someone without any ties to the country. Unlike his sister, he doesn’t speak Farsi.
It is to be a life-changing trip.Īs much of an outsider as Darius is at home, he feels just as much on the outside in Iran. She hasn’t been home in seventeen years, and Darius and Laleh haven’t ever seen their grandparents except via a computer screen. Kellner learns that her father back home in Iran is terminally ill, the family decides to visit. We can’t admit to having tea parties or playing dolls with them, because that’s unmanly.Īnd, the most damning thing of all: Darius suffers from clinical depression. We can intimidate whatever dates they bring home, although I hoped that was still a few years away for Laleh. …guys are not supposed to love their little sisters. He also has a special relationship with his younger sister, Laleh. He loves Star Trek – it’s the one thing he and his father have in common and they rewatch an episode together every night – and Tolkien. His looks aren’t the only thing that sets him apart from the other kids at his school. But really, I mostly looked like Mom, with black, loosely curled hair and and brown eyes. Well, people said I had his “strong jawline,” whatever that meant. I did not inherit any of Dad’s good looks. His mother is from Iran and his father is, as Darius calls him, an “Ubermensch.” In this compelling coming-of -age story, seventeen-year-old Darius Kellner feels like an outsider. It is impossible to count all the accolades Adib Khorram’s debut novel Darius the Great is Not Okay accumulated, but let’s just say if there is a “best” list, this YA book is likely on it.
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