Darius the Great is Not OK by Adib Khorram

Book of the Week: 19 January 2020

Cover art by Adam Carvalho

A leisurely and sensitive read about the power of friendship to transform lives.

Darius, like his father, suffers with depression and gets picked on at school. When his family discovers that his grandfather from Yazd in Iran is terminally ill they go to visit. Darius has never met his grandparents and knows little about his Persian heritage, except for his specialist knowledge of tea-making. Everything is disorientating until he meets Sohrab, the son of his grandparent’s neighbours. and they strike up a friendship. Gradually, Darius starts to feel almost more at home in Iran that he does in America.

This is Adib Khorram’s first novel and it is hard to believe he has never visited Iran. There is plenty of attention to detail and vivid descriptions of food, drink and the Persian way of life.