I Will Greet the Sun Again

A Novel

By: Khashayar J. Khabushani

Narrated by: Sean Rohani

Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

“[A] masterful debut . . . a novel of survival and longing and love, and in many ways a modern portrait of an artist as a young man . . . a book written for us, we Iranian Americans whom you don’t often hear about.”—Porochista Khakpour, The Washington Post (Best Books of the Year)

“A triumph . . . a book of astonishing accomplishment and bravery.”—Dina Nayeri, The Guardian

Winner of the Alex Award from the American Library Association • Finalist for the California Book Award and the Lambda Literary Award

An Amerie’s Book Club Pick • A Phenomenal Book Club Pick

Growing up in the San Fernando Valley with his two brothers, all K wants is to be “a boy from L.A.,” all American. But K—the youngest, named after a Persian king—knows there’s something different about himself. Like the way he feels about his closest friend, Johnny, a longing that he can’t share with anyone.

At home, K must navigate another confusing identity: that of the dutiful son of Iranian immigrants struggling to make a life for themselves in the United States. He tries to make his mother proud, live up to her ideal of a son. On Friday nights, K attends prayers at the local mosque with Baba, whose violent affections distort K’s understanding of what it means to be a man and how to love.

When Baba takes the three brothers from their mother back to Iran, K finds himself in an ancestral home he barely knows. Returning to the Valley months later, K must piece together who he is, in a world that now feels as foreign to him as the one he left behind.

A stunning, tender novel of identity and belonging, I Will Greet the Sun Again tells the story of a young man lost in his own family, his own country, and his own skin. Staring down the brutality of being a queer kid and a Muslim in America, Khashayar J. Khabushani transforms personal and national pain into an unforgettable and beautifully rendered exploration of youth, love, family—and the stories that make us who we are.

©2023 Khashayar J. Khabushani (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"[A] heartbreaking debut . . . Khabushani writes movingly about K’s queer coming-of-age and his burgeoning identity as a writer . . . [and] provides meaningful historical context for the pain passed down through these generations.”—New York Times Book Review

“Masterful . . . Now it is one of my favorite books. This is a novel of survival and longing and love, and in many ways a modern portrait of an artist as a young man. . . . A book written for us, I can hear so many people of so many different demographics say—we Iranian Americans whom you don’t often hear about. . . . Reading I Will Greet the Sun Again, you are not a voyeur—you are an accomplice, a keeper of secrets, a friend on this journey of relentless intensity.”—Porochista Khakpour, The Washington Post

“Tender and gut-wrenching . . . a book of astonishing accomplishment and bravery . . . This book is a triumph, one that will help the next generation understand our specific American childhood—how it felt to grow up with broken immigrant parents and one foot still in Iran, sitting in front of a TV in a sad apartment complex, dreaming of the good life.”—Dina Nayeri, The Guardian

Tugging your heart in all the right places!

Powerful voice, heart breaking and mending all at the same time, don’t sleep on this coming of age story! Best read in 2023!

Beautiful, original and inspiring

Deeply moving and thought provoking. This fresh coming of age story broke my heart wide open. So well written I was physically and emotionally right there with the author. What a journey.