A well written and poignant coming of age story of a boy divided between two cultures, living his being queer in secret and having to re-adapt to living in the USA.
There's not a plot, there's thing that happens and growing up. There's the continous change of being a Muslim in a country where you are minority.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

I Will Greet The Sun Again is a novel about an Iranian American boy and his family, in California and then during a sudden trip to Iran and its aftermath. The protagonist, the youngest of three boys, grows up as the novel progresses, from the seeming simplicity of childhood to the complexities of queer adolescence, family violence, and the changing position of being Muslim in America as the millennium changes.

This is the kind of coming of age novel which has things happen, but not an ongoing plot as much as a series of events or vignettes that come together to form the novel, a series of snapshots of growing up in the late nineties and early 2000s. The look at Iranian American life through the eyes of one family (and how one boy sees all of this) is fascinating and there's a lot of tenderness and sadness woven throughout, alongside a boisterous kind of brotherly love. By the end, you are offered visions of the reality of the apparent American Dream and what you must do to find and free yourself. There's a lot left unresolved or unreturned to, which may frustrate some people, but I Will Greet The Sun Again was a book I couldn't stop reading, drawn into the images created.

This was a lovely book to read. It was about a boy growing into manhood, dealing with academia, money, sexuality, family and knowing where you fit in the world.

We start in LA where K was born to Iranian parents but learn early on that his father has given up looking for work despite being a highly educated engineer and his mother is now the main breadwinner who wants to be much more than a stay at home mother.

However after a startling discovery K and his brothers are taken from LA to Iran by their father but while there K's life becomes unbearable until they are rescued by his aunt and returned to LA where we follow his life as he grows into adulthood.

Khayashar Khabushani has a beautiful style of writing and this book is different in that even when you think you know what will happen you are surprised by outcomes. K struggles to learn where he will shine when his brothers seem so focused but this only makes his character more endearing.

Beautifully written debut. I'd definitely recommend it and look forward to more by this author. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I Will Greet to the Sun Again is a poignant coming of age tale, a story of three brothers as they grow up and grow apart. It’s a hard book to review, not least because it’s a 5-star read. Why is it books you love are often the hardest to find words for? But let’s try.

The story takes place in three parts: the first, in Los Angeles, with a family of five. At the end of this part, the father smuggles away his three sons in the dead of night, taking them to Iran, to get them away from their mother’s influence. Then, they’re brought back, a confluence of their aunt and grandfather’s plans. The trip changes each of them differently, and the third part is its reckoning.

This is a character-driven book and one that takes the time to develop them, to make them fully realised, because it’s needed. If you don’t care about the characters in a book like this, that’s half the battle already lost. This is a book about these characters’ internal journeys as much as it is, at times, about the journey from the USA to Iran and back again. Not only are the main characters fleshed out, but so are the side characters, many of whom play important roles in the story’s progression. It’s testament to Khabushani’s skill as a writer that they leap off the page as much as our main cast.

Not only are the characters fully developed, but so are the places they inhabit. Every place is described with such care that you might almost imagine yourself there while these events are going on. It’s the kind of writing that makes you never want to leave a book, to perhaps inhabit it yourself, or to sink back into it time and again.

It’s kind of hard to believe that I Will Greet the Sun Again is only a debut novel, it’s that accomplished. It’s definitely a novel that will have me coming back to the author over and over, too.

I really liked the premise of this book. I was looking forward to reading about a young Iranian man growing up in LA. Unfortunately the the novel skipped ahead in time far too frequently and because of this I felt it lost its impact.

I liked the idea of this book, the themes are very emotional and it could have packed a real punch, but for me it didn't quite hit the mark. The lack of punctuation and defined chapters made it a bit difficult to read (that could be because it was a netgalley copy). The book jumps through time with little indication and it felt disjointed. It felt like just a series of snapshots through time and to me it didn't really flow. We didn't really get too much depth of some of the bigger issues that the book touched on, which was a shame.

K wants to find his place in the world (as we all do). I Will Greet the Sun Again is a book about identity, being lost and trying to find your way, at times it is painful and heartbreaking. This is an impressive coming-of-age story, one that I'd recommend to many.

Very good debut novel. The struggle of a boy who faces abuse and different ideals than a lot of teenagers his age.
The conflict of emotions between the parents and the children comes across strongly. When the father takes the boys back to his homeland, do the boys see life in Iran as it really is?

Is there a follow-up book pending following his brother's enlistment into the army, also how do things turn out for the family as a whole?

Well worth a read.

Khashayar J. Khabushani’s quietly beautiful coming-of-age story follows K, the youngest of three boys born to an Iranian couple living in California. Their unemployed father gambles nightly while their mother works as a nursing assistant with little time left for her sons. The boys learn to negotiate their way around their parents’ rows but after a particularly violent outburst find themselves flown without warning to their father’s ancestral home. After an anguished few months, they come home, picking up lives made easier by their father’s absence. Shawn and Justin begin to establish their own lives while K tentatively explores his sexuality. When his father announces his return, K knows it’s time to begin a new life but that it’s to be one of his choosing not an act of escape.

Inevitably, many first novels tend to be autobiographical. I’m not sure to what extent this one is although Khabushani’s biographical notes mention he spent time in Iran as a child and it’s those passages that are the most vividly striking in a novel notable for its understatement. The relationship between the three brothers is particularly affecting. There’s a great deal of heartbreak in K’s life but his brothers’ support helps him emerge from the long shadow his father’s influence and abuse has cast into the hope of a future of his own making. A quietly impressive debut, well worth looking out for.