The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams

Come over here. I want to walk you through a first sentence. You know, they often say that the first sentence of a book should really be a doozy and grab the reader’s attention, but most of the time authors sort of dash it off. They prefer to make the first page or the first chapter momentous and me......more

4.25* Hurray, another book by Daniel Nayeri! With "Everything Sad is Untrue" Daniel Nayeri already established himself as an auto-buy author for me - writing witty yet tenderly and weaving extremely wonderous tales of belonging and identity. In many ways, this book isn't too different from his debut. I......more

I received a free copy for review from the publisher. This (clearly!) does not affect my opinions. Monkey, an orphan, is saved from death by the monks he used to call brothers by a smooth-talking merchant: he offers the monks various supplies in exchanges for Monkey's life, but equates them to six bo......more

I very much enjoyed this journey that Nayeri crafts along the silk road. Ok, comparisons first: It isn't as compelling of a story as Everything Sad is Untrue (A True Story), yet it still holds his whimsical, spell-binding character of story teller in a powerful way. This is a smart follow up to the......more