House of Yesterday

(Hardback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Sixteen-year-old Sara is reeling from her parents' impending divorce when she first stumbles upon a haunting apparition of her grandmother in a house her family is renovating. Except her grandmother is still alive, though as her beloved Bibi Jan's dementia progresses, it feels that she is less present with each day. As Sara desperately clings to the living memories in the house, her huge Afghan-Uzbek family's secrets and her grandmother's complicated history begin to rise to the surface. But she knows she'll have to face the present eventually, no matter how much it hurts to leave her grandmother's younger self behind-that is, if the house lets her leave at all.

Reviews

"Zargarpur has penned a dazzling debut that combines a complex intergenerational immigrant-family drama, a story of a teen dealing with sweeping life changes, and a genre-bending ghost story." --Booklist, STARRED REVIEW

"A suspenseful, artfully written paranormal drama exploring the ghosts of intergenerational trauma." --Kirkus

"[A] dreamlike novel that engagingly examines grief, healing, and preserving the stories of the past." --Publishers Weekly

"Lyrical and poignant, Deeba Zargarpur's novel weaves an evocative narrative of grief, family, and the many ways in which the past can haunt us. A heart-wrenching debut, and one you cannot miss." --Swati Teerdhala, author of The Tiger at Midnight trilogy

"Much like the titular house that both haunts and illuminates Sara's life, House of Yesterday is an atmospheric powerhouse of a book that will have you gripped in its thrall long after you've turned the last page. Zargarpur's tale of how family both builds us up and tears us apart will stay with me for a long time." --Roseanne A. Brown, New York Times Bestselling Author of A Song of Wraiths and Ruin

"A beautifully written tale about reckoning the rose-colored stories our family tells us as children with the often painful truths we understand as adults. Sara's unflinchingly messy and deeply heartfelt journey will remain with readers for a long time." --Amanda Foody, New York Times Bestselling co-author of All of Us Villains

"House of Yesterday is a tender, haunting tribute to the secrets, grudges, and forgiveness that bind a family. The story is at once an open door for outsiders as well as an affirming mirror for hyphenated readers." --Nadia Hashimi, author of The Pearl That Broke Its Shell

"A stunning exploration about a girl dealing with grief and identity. Written in hauntingly beautiful prose, Zargarpur captures the struggle of a diaspora girl grappling with how her family's identity clashes with who she thinks she wants to be. A gorgeous debut!" --Kat Cho, New York Times Bestselling Author of Once Upon a K-Prom and Wicked Fox

"Hauntingly beautiful prose evokes a sense of the gothic in House of Yesterday. In this stunning debut, Zargarpur weaves a unique tale of memory, grief, and intergenerational trauma where the past stalks the present, and the future hangs in the balance."--June CL Tan, author of Jade Fire Gold

HOUSE OF YESTERDAY is a haunting, lyrical meditation on generational trauma; a love letter to diaspora families, in all their imperfect glory; and most important of all, a shining testament to the fact that healing can come from the most unlikely of places, if only we have the courage to reach for it. --Adib Khorram, Award-winning author of Darius the Great Is Not Okay

Author Bio

Deeba Zargarpur is an Afghan-Uzbek American. She credits her love of literature across various languages to her immigrant parents, whose eerie tales haunted her well into the night. If given the choice, Deeba would spend her days getting lost in spooky towns with nothing but a notebook and eye for adventure to guide her. House of Yesterday is her debut novel. She lives in Philadelphia. deebazargarpur.com Instagram & Twitter @deebazargarpur