Homeland Elegies: A Barack Obama Favourite Book
(Paperback)
Publishing Details
Homeland Elegies: A Barack Obama Favourite Book
By (Author) Ayad Akhtar
Headline Publishing Group
Tinder Press
13th July 2021
8th July 2021
United Kingdom
Classifications
General
Fiction
History: specific events and topics
Family life fiction
Terrorism, armed struggle
Narrative theme: Politics
Narrative theme: Displacement, exile, migration
Narrative theme: Identity / belonging
813.6
Physical Properties
Paperback
368
Width 128mm, Height 196mm, Spine 32mm
259g
Description
A NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST AND ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR
'I read it in a fever, swept up in the kind of rapture you fall into when your most audacious friend kicks off on a hilarious, outrageous, but deeply sincere rant' Torrey Peters, Guardian Books of the Summer'A beautiful novel about an American son and his immigrant father that has echoes of THE GREAT GATSBY' New York TimesA deeply personal novel of identity and belonging in a nation coming apart at the seams, HOMELAND ELEGIES blends fact and fiction to tell an epic story of belonging and dispossession in the world that 9/11 made. Part family drama, part satire, part picaresque, at its heart it is the story of a father and son, and the country they call home.Ranging from the heartland towns of America to palatial suites in Europe to guerrilla lookouts in the mountains of Afghanistan, Akhtar forges a narrative voice that is original as it is exuberantly entertaining. This is a world in which debt has ruined countless lives and the gods of finance rule, where immigrants live in fear and the unhealed wounds of 9/11 continue to wreak havoc. HOMELAND ELEGIES is a novel written in love and anger, which spares no one, least of all the author himself.Reviews
An urgent, intimate hybrid of memoir and fiction, HOMELAND ELEGIES thrusts us into the heart of a father-son relationship and in the process - improbably - does nothing short of laying bear the broken heart of our American dream turned reality TV nightmare... Stunning * A M Homes *
A beautiful novel about an American son and his immigrant father that has echoes of The Great Gatsby * New York Times *
Ayad Akhtar offers up his heart and life with an honesty that astonishes. Never have I experienced such a reading thrill * Maria Semple *
Perhaps the best American novel I have read in several years -- Richard Flanagan
A passionate, wrenching portrayal of Americans exiled into otherness by a post 9/11 world * Jennifer Egan *
The challenge of remembering one's identity in a racist culture is at the heart of Akhtar's remarkable new book, HOMELAND ELEGIES...It would not surprise me if it wins him a second Pulitzer Prize * Washington Post *
A triumph. Akhtar rages, he sings, he indicts, he falls in love, he sorrows, he dreams, he mourns, he transcribes! - and finally he transmutes injustice into the sublimest art * Joshua Ferris *
The astonishing work of an absolutely brilliant writer. With exquisite prose and lacerating honesty, Ayad Akhtar reveals the intersections of art, finance, race, religion, academia and empire * Philip Klay *
This is the book of the year * Oprah Magazine *
Part fiction, part memoir, and all brilliant * Ron Charles *
Provocative and urgent... a revelation * Publishers Weekly *
Author Bio
Ayad Akhtar is a playwright, novelist, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the author of AMERICAN DERVISH, published in over 20 languages and named a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2012. His plays include Disgraced (Lincoln Center, Broadway; Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tony nomination) and The Invisible Hand (NYTW; Obie Award, Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award, Olivier, and Evening Standard nominations). As a screenwriter, he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay for The War Within.
