BOOK COVER OF THE WALKING
VARIOUS COVERS OF THE AGE OF ORPHANS
Stories
Air and Water
Virginia Quarterly Review, Winter 2009
What the Street Saw
San Francisco Chronicle, June 2006
Guest Editor
Virginia Quarterly Review
Iran, Issue Summer 2010
Books
The Walking
Bloomsbury, 2012
Praise for The Walking:
“THE WALKING is a deliberate, nakedly passionate confrontation with [Khadivi’s] past. A successful novel needn’t set out to teach us something—to bend us morally—but the precision of Khadivi’s sentences, each with a gentle rhythm and a sure-footed intelligence, engenders deep sympathy for the miseries experienced by forced migrants.”
–NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Link to Review
“[L]yrical and deeply emotive…THE WALKING is a book that manages to convey painful truths with a rare combination of grit and tenderness. That makes it not just an important addition to the literature of California's immigrants, but also a universal story of suffering and resilience told with elegance and compassion.”
–HECTOR TOBAR, LATIMES BOOK REVIEW
Link to Review
"In great part, The Walking addresses the heart-aching conflict — a sort of inner border war — of all reluctant or accidental immigrants: To whom am I loyal? With which nation do I identify? Where do I put my memories and how do I forget injustices? The hopeful answer is always the notion that we somehow straddle both the "old home" and the "new home" without betraying either, but that’s neither easy nor easily defined, which is why a novel that explores these issues can be so helpful and enlightening."
—SUSANNE PARI, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
"In a time when millions have been dislocated and relocated, [The Walking] is a beautifully worded and thoughtful tale about losing one's home and the new ways of making a community."
–CAPE TIMES, CAPE TOWN
"Powerfully told."
–FINANCIAL TIMES
Link to Review
"In spare and elegant prose Khadivi suggests leaving home is easier than leaving the past behind."
–SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
"Alive and gripping... descriptions of people, places and particularly emotions are exquisite—poetry in prose—highly recommended."
–LIBRARY JOURNAL
"... deeply personal and revelatory..."
–BOOKLIST
"Lyrical and restrained... chapters soar on oft-haunting and always precise imagery. The second of three novels brings a delicate touch to the emotional intricacies involved in both leaving one's homeland and staying behind."
–PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Link to Review
The Age of Orphans
Bloomsbury, 2009
Praise for The Age of Orphans:
"An arresting, powerful, transformative, unflinching epic and deeply affecting novel"
–CHRIS ABANI (AUTHOR OF GRACELAND)
"The Age of Orphans has something in common with Chinua Achebe's masterpiece, Things Fall Apart … the style is poetic, intense and lyrical"
–INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
"Ironic, beautifully written… introduces a writer with a strong, unflinching voice and a penetrating vision"
–PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, (STARRED REVIEW)
"Bold and beautiful… Khadivi's language is sensuous and rich… At a time when western readers' perceptions of Iran are too often shaped by current affairs, this book and its sequels will shine a necessary light on the country's dawn, and on its people's remarkable history"
–FINANCIAL TIMES
"As beautiful as it is violent, [Khadivi] tells the larger story of the nation's reinvention through the life of a single Kurdish boy … impressive and courageous"
–TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
"Khadivi's debut novel, remarkable for its beautiful and brutal poetry, tells the story of a lost Kurdish child and the history of 'this invisible thing called Iran'"
–INDEPENDENT
"This is a stunning debut … unflinching, gorgeously
poetic, intimate yet with a wondrous sweep of history. To read the tale of Reza Khourdi is to take a journey deep inside the darkest cavity of the heart"
–CRISTINA GARCIA (AUTHOR OF DREAMING IN CUBAN)