He Talks Like a Persian Rug

 This book is perfect for an intergenerational book club.  It is written for middle school and up.  Khosrou is Daniel's real name but no one in America can pronounce it, so his mother renamed Khosrou, Daniel, after the kid in the Bible story, who was thrown in the lion's pit.  Daniel's mother is a Christian, which is very important to the story, although the story isn't religious.  It's pretty secular.  This is one of the reasons why I enjoyed the book, Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri. 

Although Daniel comes from Iran, the story starts in a middle school classroom in Oklahoma.  The students have a writing project and this book turns out to be the stories Daniel tells his classmates.  Think (Scheherazade's 1001 Nights)  

Daniel's parents were both doctors in Iran.  So the family was pretty well-off. Everything changed when Daniel's mother became Christian.  This was/is bad, in Iran.  She sacrificed her safe and respected career for Christianity.  She was going to be killed, so she ran.  She escaped, taking her two children with her.  No matter where she went, she still had the fatwa sentence of death above her.  That's why they chose to live in Oklahoma--no Muslims.  

Obviously, Daniel is Christian, otherwise, he would be blaming his mother for all the bad and sad things that had happened to them.  Instead, his mother is the hero.  She survives a fatwa, deprivation, humiliation, poverty, violence, and abuse.  She still carries her dignity as a child of God and clings to hope that heaven awaits her.  What a witness!

She lost her husband, too.  He didn't come with the family, in fact, he remarried.  Consequently, so did Daniel's mother.  This stepfather was abusive, but she does stand up to him, as do the children. 

I chose the title, "He Talks Like a Persian Rug," because Daniel often refers to the beautiful Persian rugs they left behind.  They were handmade, and when they were perfectly finished, one mistake would be made, because only God is perfect.  (See, Kafka.)  Daniel wove his story as a rug maker weaves a rug.  And what a beautiful story he wove.