Homeland Elegies

A Barack Obama Favourite Book

By: Ayad Akhtar

Narrated by: Ayad Akhtar

AN ECONOMIST, NEW YORK TIMES AND WASHINGTON POST BOOK OF THE YEAR
'Outstanding... it is hard to convey the breadth and brilliance of this work' Observer
'A beautiful novel about an American son and his immigrant father that has echoes of THE GREAT GATSBY' New York Times

A 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.

Critic 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 beautiful novel about an American son and his immigrant father that has echoes of The Great Gatsby

Ayad Akhtar offers up his heart and life with an honesty that astonishes. Never have I experienced such a reading thrill

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

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

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

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

This is the book of the year

Part fiction, part memoir, and all brilliant

Provocative and urgent... a revelation

interesting and mildly thought provoking

a good listen and an interesting story. A mix of personal anecdotes and socio political observation/critique. Some is lightly thought provoking, some just entertaining. A bit unstructured but not in a confusing way, just in a 'collection of pivotal moments' way