GO HOME
A timely novel about a Parsi foreign student in Delaware, who in the turbulent wake of the Iran hostage crisis can't distinguish his redneck oppressors from his Deadhead neighbors. And the story of a violent world that is nevertheless slowly coming together.
"At the heart of Sohrab Homi Fracis's poignant new novel, Go Home, is the question of one's place in the world, the answer never more ambiguous or fragile than for the immigrant or exile, when a person's condition of homelessness is in transition, neither here nor there. Given the cultural moment, I'm grateful to Fracis for his highly topical reexamination of the American Dream, a still reliable but never easy remedy for all those yearning to reinvent themselves beyond the constrictions of tribe and nation. And in Go Home, assimilation, sometimes a wretched exercise, can also be a hilarious and uplifting affair."
- Bob Shacochis, author of The Woman Who Lost Her Soul (Dayton Literary Peace Prize) and Easy in the Islands (National Book Award)
"I read Go Home with great pleasure and lots of empathy for the displaced and somewhat mystified but always lovable Viraf and his misadventures in America. The author's (and Viraf's) powers of observation as well as the period he covers -- Deadheads and Pintos, great fun -- are distinctive qualities of his engrossing account of the immigrant experience."
- Diane Johnson, author of Le Divorce and Persian Nights, and co-scriptwriter of The Shining
"Go Home is the story of one man's journey to build a cultural bridge across continents, crossing waters that are unsettling and unsafe. While Fracis sets the novel during one of the most turbulent decades in both India's and the United States' history, his writing also offers insight in today's tense climate. Beautiful prose, wise and witty."
- Susan Muaddi Darraj, author of A Curious Land (American Book Award, AWP Grace Paley Prize, Arab American Book Award) and The Inheritance of Exile
"This is a beautiful novel about leaving home and moving to America, old world to new, and the courageous spirit of beginning a new life. With his accurate eye and marmalade-like descriptions, Sohrab Fracis's characters come alive. Go Home fulfills the promise of his Iowa Short Fiction Award."
- Deepak Singh, NPR, PRI, BBC Commentator, author of How May I Help You? An Immigrant's Journey from MBA to Minimum Wage
A peek at Diane Johnson's lovely initial response / mini-review
"Now I've finished reading Go Home, with great pleasure, as I said, and lots of sympathy for the somewhat hapless but always lovable Viraf and his misadventures in America. As a displaced person myself - living in France - I understand his mystification, and the way in which the immigrant ends up being culturally displaced at home as well as in the new country. And as a myopic, I laughed a lot at his adventures with glasses and contacts. Viraf's and the author's powers of observation are one of the distinctive qualities of his engrossing account of the immigrant experience. Another is the period it covers, with Deadheads and Pintos, which are great fun."